Free tuition for Blacks

[Clems0nTiger]

Well, count me in. The coal industry is a dirty (literally) one. There are some MAJOR problems with burning coal:

1. CO2: As someone points out below, CO2 is harmless (unless you have too much or too little... just like O2). Burning coal pumps out CO2 big time... as well as CO (which is NOT Harmless. CO2 is a greenhouse gass and pumping it out into the atmosphere is not a good thing.
2. Burning coal produces some really nasty gasses (in addition to CO2), like bunches of sulpher based chemicals (including sulfuric acid). These get put in the atmosphere and are then washed out by rain/snow. This can damage areas hundreds of miles away (acid rain). This was a MUCH bigger problem in the 70s before the candy asses made the coal industry filter those gasses and stop killing farmer's crops.
3. Burning coal produces a bunch of ash. This ash is rich in heavy metals, most notably arsenic, mercury, and lead. When rain falls on these ash piles, these and other heavy metals are washed down into the water tables which is where lots of folks get their drinking water from. Again, the coal industry didn't voluntarily fix this. Those same candy asses had to make the coal industry waterproof their ash piles b/c they apparently had NO PROBLEM poisoning the public.

Coal is a crap industry right now and hopefully, it goes the way of the dodo bird. The government has been an important (and good) element of change. Slavery was outlawed, Separate but Equal was outlawed, Segregated Schools were outlawed, florocarbins were outlawed. These are all good changes that states and industry would have kept around if the feds didn't force the issue.

So the government isn't always bad and neither are liberals. Actually, I have NO PROBLEM with paying some of my taxes to help out the people who are out of work in the coal industry. They helped build America and we should help them get back on their feet and train in something else.

He doesn't believe CO2 is a bad thing at all, so this argument will go nowhere with him.

As someone who trusts scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change, I'm with you. I'd prefer to prop up an industry in order to accelerate adoption and technology advances in an industry that is clearly our future. We are providing investments now in exchange for time later on. Time that is precious to fix problems that we may not have later.

I also agree that broad reform in the midwest is necessary to modify the career changes that are occurring to rapidly for coal workers and other industries, related to the decimation of automation, are needed. We've turned West Virginia all the way up to Indiana into Detroit-looking areas, with rural landscapes. They are turning into heroine and fentanyl addicts. The only difference between rural midwest and Detroit is the skyscrapers and skin color.

The uncomfortable truth is that many unskilled laborers are simply not going to turn into Amazon software engineers overnight. Manufacturing is over. Jobs don't just come to an area anymore. You need to go to the jobs. And you need training. The ticket to the middle class requires higher education now.

 

[Brucepg2000]

I was in Madison, Wisconsin for my nephews wedding. Nice place pretty good lake fishing. If they want to pay for any qualified kids education who cares? It's Not-yo-cheese!! The state of SC is notorious for its poor approach to schools and opportunities in general. From what i can see they are still reeling. Glad I left when I did. The opportunities and prospects were grim 25 or so years ago. It appears that your concern is with competitive edges being given to "less qualified" prospects. This argument is full of crap. As long as scholarships are being awarded for any special interests this will exist. Also what if they have what the school desires. He/She impresses admissions based other factors that would be up to the school or committee granting the scholarship.