Trumka: "Mines don't fall apart by accident; Neither do economies"

[Enrique]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-trumka/lets-cheer-the-chilean-mi_b_762509.html

(...)

In this environment, disasters can't be simply dismissed as accidental -- any more than a drunk-driving death can be chocked up as another little mishap on the road. Even if that's what CEOs like Don Blankenship of Massey Energy and Republican senatorial hopefuls Rand Paul of Kentucky and John Raese of West Virginia might want to do.

Despite a deplorable safety record at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, Massey Energy's Blankenship shrugged off the explosion that killed 29 miners last spring as "unavoidable." Raese, meanwhile, wants to "unshackle" business from government regulation -- like the kind that keeps miners alive.

Last summer, two young coal miners died in western Kentucky when a roof collapsed. Amid allegations of safety violations, candidate Rand Paul's response was to say "sometimes accidents happen."

(...)

Mines don't fall apart by accident. Neither do economies. They crumble from choices and policies that put profits ahead of people -- and leave working people in the rubble.

But we can -- and I believe we will -- rise from America's economic disaster just like those Chilean miners. They're strong. So are we.

[Brickbat]

1. The most heartbreaking thing about this rescue is that if people had put this much effort into

listening to, honoring, helping and keeping these miners safe BEFORE the accident, there might not have even been an accident -- and profits still would have been just fine.

[Kolesar]

2. Coal makes a fortune from Appalachia, but WV and Kentucky are still depressed

Big coal creates a small number of jobs in a very automated environment. A few miners make good money, but the communities are left to rot.

[ThomWV]

3. and if the truth were to be told people would know that miners don't make all that much money either

Anyone that thinks that miners are making a lot of money had a lot to learn. It is not by choice that most live in trailers. Granted, a miner's pay will put you in a nice double-wide, but don't think they are living like little Princes, they most certainly are not.

[Kolesar]

6. In the west, miners camps are developed, then decommissioned when the mine is done

The residents have their homes towed off to another mine site.

[Renew Deal]

4. Accidents can be preventable, but they are still accidents.

:shrug:

[xchrom]

5. 'neither do economies' - recommend