The following is excerpted from a Washington Post article and substantially edited for brevity. It is classified as a "Fund Discussion" because Ted has ruled that this is appropriate if there are funds that trade in the subject under discussion.President Trump on Friday invoked emergency powers granted under Cold War-era legislation to halt the shutdown of ailing coal and nuclear power plants. One likely plan, laid out in a 41-page draft memorandum would favor certain power plants owned by some of the president’s political allies in the coal industry.
Environmental groups, natural-gas producers, and Republicans and Democrats who have pushed for greater competition in electricity markets all condemned the plan and noted that the coal and nuclear power plants that would benefit have failed to compete against natural gas, solar and wind. Many of the plants have operated far longer than anticipated when they were built.
The subsidy would be a major victory for FirstEnergy, whose top lobbyist last year was Jeff Miller. Miller was campaign manager for the presidential campaign of Rick Perry, now energy secretary. Trump attended a private dinner with Miller and a handful of political advisers in early April.
The White House made no further comments regarding draining of the Washington swamp.
Comments
Anyways, I do think some thought needs to be spared for those who worked in Coal industry forever, just like it should have been for the Steel industry. The word "Progress" is often used to explain away what are still "upheavals" for some. If the "coal miners" could find alternate employment, then it wouldn't matter what Trump, Perry, et al. think.
My problem with your analysis is this:
https://theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/the-silent-crisis-of-retail-employment/523428/
I was just looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics latest unemployment stats and something like 885,000 retail workers are now unemployed and only about 20,000 in the mining industry. According to the linked Atlantic article, 40% of retail sector employees are ethnic minorities and 60% of them are female. Meanwhile 95% of mining employees are white males. Another Macy’s closed in my neck of the woods. Why isn’t the federal government stepping in to help those workers if thought must be spared?
When certain professions die off, people find other jobs. We don't move around in horse carriages today. We have an automobile industry. Time travel to 2418, everyone might have a hovercraft. People, professions, change, die off. All good.
Philadelphia Steel workers out of job. Is it because we discovered some other metal instead of steel? Or is it because we no longer need steel? No. We just took their professions away. Who benefited? If all of those Steel workers are working in the Silicon Valley today, I'm wrong, and we can stop right here. There is a difference between advancement through obsolescence, vs progress (sic) through transfer of wealth reducing the population of the 1% which is not a good thing.
Now the question is - Is Coal more like a horse carriage or is it more like Steel? Maybe somewhere in between, or maybe my ANALogy does not apply at all. If America gets rid of all Coal jobs and replaces them with all Nuclear (yikes!), Wind, Solar, Algae jobs and keeps all those Coal Miners employed at NOT $8/hour jobs, let's do it immediately. However if all we are doing is change a Coal Mine Owner Millionaire to a Algae Millionaire where machines generate energy, then as long as we can keep feeding the Coal Miners and given them a sense of self worth, let's do that too.
At the risk of digressing, did anyone ever think about downsizing congress? How hard is to code a bot that has ONE Rule implemented - Vote for everything with Trump's signature. What jobs will those career politicians have, then? Why don't we talk about ending their jobs like we talk about ending Coal jobs. BOTH are allegedly detrimental to society.
I work in the IT sector (oh why oh why oh why). I'm okay with any advancement for the benefit of society at large. Just looking at employment numbers is not sufficient. You know I'm in Texas which is conservative poster child for job creation. Most jobs created in Texas are low paying jobs. I'm sure you will be able to find the stats for that.
If at every turn of tech/biotech/etc advancement, people are getting alternate jobs at lower standard of living it is not solving the issue and increasing the wealth gap. If I'm saying please keep an eye out for the Coal Miners, does not make me a Trump supporter. IMO it just makes me a normal human being.
I said "Steel Workers" and didn't say "Horse Carriage ". Getting rid of Steel jobs and Manufacturing jobs did not help American society. Those jobs still exist, only they moved elsewhere. Getting rid of horse carriages did benefit ALL society assuming you can co-relate the efficiencies and productivity enhancements with pollution from gas guzzling automobiles. I will let someone smarter than me solve the equation for Coal.
To be honest, I think there should be consideration for all displaced workers—good unemployment benefits and programs to retrain and place workers in different industries. How hard would it be for instance to retrain coal miners to work in the alternative energy industry and make everyone happy but those who hate spending tax dollars helping anyone?
However, to get back on point...
"Coal Miner" is probably a more high skilled job than not, with a higher standard of living wouldn't you say? "Retailing" might mean someone who stacks clothes in JC Penny vs someone more knowledgeable in say Home Depot, but at-large much lower wage jobs. Without disrespecting anyone, I think it is easier to learn most "Retail" jobs than learning to become a "Coal Miner". "Retail" job losers are therefore more likely to land other low paying jobs than "Coal Miner".
So I get what you are saying in that a larger population of the retail jobs have been lost because even if its at the same rate as Steel, Coal jobs declined, we are talking about many more people out of work as number in Retailing. If I lose my job in my chosen profession, and if I have to find a job in another profession which I'm not "skilled" at, then stands to reason I will have to accept it at lower wages. THIS is the problem I was alluding too. If I take my resume to Walmart and ask for job, they will first laugh, then ask me if I would be willing to work for less than what they would have paid someone who lost his job at Sears. THAT is the only way I'll get the job. I will shore up the employment numbers if I do that.
Progress is eliminating "skilled" jobs and "unskilled" jobs. Using double quotes, because one's opinion may vary on what is/is not. Regardless, unemployment numbers keep dropping. HOW?!?!?! Stands to reason, through creation of low(er) paying jobs assuming people are simply not dissappearing from the workforce. If they are, then we are masking the problem. That's why I said simply looking at number of people with/without jobs is not sufficient by itself and we have look at what those jobs are paying. Walmart, McDonalds, and now we know even Amazon have benefited from Government largesse by letting them keep compensation low, with Uncle Sam making up the rest and they are simply continuing to do so. There was a time 1 person working was enough for a 4-person family to live comfortably. Not today. Saying more people in the workforce = progress is not correct. More correct to say "more slaves" in the workforce. Offensive I know, but less incorrect than earlier statement.
I wonder what'll happen if all Coal Miners and all Retail employees losing their jobs learn to do "coding". That's what everyone is supposed to do in the New World Order I hear. That's the job of tomorrow. That's all we will need to know. We don't even need to know how to speak because Google will take care of impersonating us for scheduling haircut appointment.
There was a time everyone wanted to be a Coal Miner/Steel Maker. Then they formed Unions. Maybe one way to fix the problem is to have so many "coders" in the market place which will depress their wages, and then we will have Unions in Silicon Valley. Then we will destroy those Unions. Impossible to think we will have an economy driven by "coders" and what will be the next new thing that will eliminate THOSE jobs. If past and present is any guide, I'd be on something that pays lower wages.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/opinion/coal-cash-and-bad-faith.html
Right on bro!+1
Imagine utilities going before their public ute commissions and asking for hefty rate increases due to this "national security" (ha) mandate, and what ratepayers at large are going to say and do when they see the bill.