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I’m sure by now most of you have heard that yet another mining tragedy has occurred in West Virginia. Since I was born in W. Va., these things tend to hit a little closer to home for me than perhaps for most of the country. I know the state. And I know the ‘state of the state.’ It’s poor. In many places it falls below the poverty line. Much of this poverty is systemic and multi-generational. The educational system, while not the worst in the nation is also far from being the best. Add these two things together and you have a bunch of people without much of an opportunity to move ‘up’ or ‘out.’
And that is what makes many of them choose to work in the mines… work in harm’s way day in and day out. What is the option? What other employment opportunities do they have? Where do they go if they have little education and even less money? The short answer is ‘nowhere.’
So they work in mines. Underground. Year in and year out. In unsafe and sometimes even deplorable working conditions.
The news that this mining company had multiple citations as recently as last month does not come as a surprise. And the fact that they haven’t paid their fines nor fixed their problems does not come as a surprise either. Why should they? After all, this is about ‘the bottom-line.’ It’s about making a profit and that means doing things as cheaply and efficiently as possible – even if that means putting people’s lives at risk.
It makes me wonder what the lives of these men trapped far below ground could have been like if the company they worked for gave a rip about something more than making money for their shareholders. It makes me wonder what the entire coal industry would do if overnight they were forced to switch from a single bottom-line (profit alone) to a triple bottom-line (people, planet, profit).
Well, I guess the reality is that you and I can wonder all we’d like because it aint gonna happen. Not now. And perhaps not ever. And why should it? Because as long as we live in a world where people are expendable and cash is king, people will die while those they work for continue to get rich.
So when you see the representatives of this mining company on the news spewing all their public relations crap, just remember that the lives they’re talking about are lives that always have and always will take second place to making a profit.
Welcome to the disastrous side of our Capitalistic system.
7 comments to “Cheap Lives in W.Va.”
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Hey Tim, the story of the miners is a painful reminder that Capitalism is not the best government system that we think it is. The sad thing is that when people focus on money over people, usually people get hurt, even to the extent of their own life. We have created yet another idol, mainly the desire of wealth over the needs of others, and that idol will not be helpful to our future, but only destructive. Good post Tim! I think we need to think about just how important we place our Capitalistic ideals above the value of others.
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I would point to the existence of corporations (not businesses) as the root issue. By definition, corporations remove responsibility that would otherwise be placed on the individual owners. Small business owners already have to care for people and their surroundings, because their own reputation and livelihoods are at stake. But corporations are artificially-created entities that remove responsibility, and allow stockholders to walk away with the profits, regardless of whose lives they endanger.
With an institution like that running loose, bad things are going to happen.
I’m not against big businesses. I’m against corporations. I’m against artificial economies and privileges. Let the big businesses continue to exist, stripped of any artificial protections afforded by government. Let them deal with the real realities of their actions, not the realities afforded by their political intrigue.
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I’ve been asking myself what in the world is going on with the coal mines. Sounds like they are get fine after fine after fine for safety issues, yet are allowed to ignore the fines and not make any corrective action. If true, what is going on? The company I work for would be shut down in a heart-beat if they acted this way. Sure creates a big question mark in my mind.
Unfortunately, the small guy is once again the loser.
Stockholder greed? Probably part of the problem. But it stinks like there’s more involved than just the stockholders.
A real heartbreaker non-the-less.
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Tim, I commend you on this great blog, and thanks for being courageous enough to post the truth about Massey and other corporations.
Unfortunately, the wealthy and powerful have always oppressed and exploited the weak and the poor. Great wealth breeds greed and corruption. It’s unavoidable.
The problem is multiplied when corporations are allowed to control the politics and government of a nation. This is called fascism and this is America.
We sold our country to these evil men when we allowed the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, giving bankers complete control over the nation’s economy.
Sadly, there is no solution or remedy to the problem other than revolution, which I, as a peace-loving man cannot advocate.
We must accept it and look within ourselves for the peace of mind and contentment that only Spirit can provide.
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I don’t know the answer to this one — as a sort of businessperson myself, I don’t like the idea of just blaming “big business” for everything. I want to be able to pursue business interests in a free market. But being one of the “little guys” too, I realize, like Micah said, there is a disconnect from responsibility that happens due to the goverment’s recognition of these entities known as corporations, which exist only as a paper in a filing cabinet somewhere, and that allow virtually no recourse against their business owners when they recklessly endanger their employees. This kind of setup doesn’t reflect reality. You can’t drag a paper into court and hold it responsible for the loss of a human life.
If we did away with all these filing cabinet make-believe business entities, perhaps business owners would be a lot more careful with their employees lives, since they would be the ones personally dragged into court with wrongful death lawsuits when accidents like this were to happen.
Accidents and disasters are always going to happen in life no matter what safety measures are taken, and we don’t always need to point the finger at someone and try to place blame for it. God created a world where accidents and disasters happen all the time. But it’s sad that these mining corporations are so far detached from reality that in the pursuit of money, they routinely allow human safety to become a backburner concern.
Tim, I highly recommend a movie made in the mid 80′s called “Matewan.” It is a powerful movie with an all star cast about life in a coal mining town. It was pitted in the era where unions ran complete towns and union busters were an underground unified group. I believe it is a bonified statement to those of us who have never been exposed to that life. I’ll be vulnerable here and say it is one of the best movies made on that subject. The star, Chris Cooper, went on to make “October Sky” which was another movie about coal mining.