The AP reports
“
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — At two of the world’s biggest coal mines, the finances got so bad that their owner couldn’t even get toilet paper on credit.
Warehouse technician Melissa Worden divvied up what remained of the last case, giving four rolls to each mine and two to the mine supply facility where she worked.
Days later, things got worse.
Mine owner Blackjewel LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 1. Worden at first figured the accounts would get settled quickly and vendors of everything from copy paper to parts for house-sized dump trucks would soon be back to doing normal business with the mines.”
The real question is what we do as a country to deal with this problem. As a person who has been in recovery for over a decade, I have seen people that come into the treatment centers from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio where I lived for almost of all my life. I am sure that you get an occasional case of the opioid user from this region that heads into the sunny Southern California treatment center especially with union-backed health insurance.
These people go to treatment and then return without return with any support or hope. So what we do about this problem. Do we focus on the New Green Deal on these areas because the relationship between employment and drug use is direct? Do we need to start WPA New Deal type work projects in this area? Or do we just admit that these areas no longer are inhabitable and the federal government offers direct relocation payments to have these people relocate back to urban areas where work is readily more available? Or does the government moves to the agricultural area to fill the void left behind due to Trump’s draconian immigration policy?
The private sector cannot solve this problem on its own. It requires an active federal government that is willing to be creative with a policy that it creates. The private sector can help, but it takes the lead of the federal government in order for the private sector to move in and create a profitable business model. Or this area can be an incubator in the new economic model as well to address some of the problems and abuses that unfettered capitalism has created since its inception.
There is a price to pay for this and too many lives are being lost to the scourge of addiction.
(Note: This is analysis piece by the poster and is based on analysis of the poster. The scope of this post focuses on economic and addiction issues and anything to do with environmental issues is outside the scope of this diary)