Because We All Need To Feel That We Have Value...

...That we can contribute to our families, as opposed to be a burden on them. That's what a job can mean.

When you see that people are made to be willing to go back into dangerous work conditions so that they can have that feeling of value back again, we shouldn't be at all surprised. Especially when you combine that with how collections of such jobs can bring a community as a whole back to life with the renewed flow of commerce. That a part of that commerce then becomes a much greater health care requirement sometimes gets lost in the photo shoots for the politicians, or in the rosey new job statistics that simply state more people are working again; whatever the wage may be, or whatever the work conditions. or whether they'll be getting help for that sure to be increasing health care premium.

These people get used twice in this, of course. Once in the photo shoot with the politician, signing whatever needs to be signed that supposedly makes this product viable again. But also because it is amazingly sure to be only a very problematic outcome; as other fuels are always on the hunt to compete better, and the producers are always looking to make each work hour be as cost effective as possible. Which means not only more solar, or natural gas (in relation to coal) to generate what we need, but also because every year there's a better machine, or combinations of machines, to chip away at the requirement for a human component to the cost per output equation. So these folks may be given hope for a short time, made sicker, or injured outright, in the process, only to find later on that a dying fuel, or a dying technology for that matter, is exactly that no matter what the politician found it in his, or her, interest to gloss over, or ignore.

When will we see that our value ought to lie with what we can contribute to keeping our community going. And that work should never be some sickening enterprise that you are locked into simply because that's the only thing a "market" had any interest in; and even then with nearly complete disregard of what it cost you to do the work.

This is the true nature of Capitalism. This is what it does, for the most part. Not because it is evil. Simply because that is the cold calculus that it operates under. We have moved beyond that kind of cold rationality. It's time our economic organizational methodology changed accordingly. Or said another way: The way we operate needs to be more in line with the way the human heart, and mind, now needs to work together.

Is that so hard to accept? I for one certainly hope not.

Why Black Lung Disease Is Deadlier Than Ever Before