I know man...You could see women weaping tears of joy and seeing how happy and relieved they were. It makes you feel horrible but what can you say? I've never had to feel that way in my lifetime so I really have no clue what those families are going through. Prayers....
50 grand is not well compensated in a backwards West Virginia town? Good compensation is relative to competition. OK, they could go to work at Wendy's...........
No 50 grand is not good compensation when you are risking your life. What kind of death benefits a miner's family gets? I would bet it is damned near nil.
50 grand a year, for their education level and where they live, in relation to outside business competition, is a bunch of money. Just like guys here that go out to a plant with a high school degree and make 65 or 70 grand. That's money they couldn't make any other way with their education level. Yeah, there's a chance you could be vaporized like with the Exxon explosion years ago.....but that's the risk when you don't have a great skill set or education level....to them, it's worth the risk. Same for coal miners. No one is making them go in those mines. They do it because the risk is worth the payoff to them.......compared to every other job in the location, $50000 is a small fortune. They're buddies work at the car wash and make $5.50 an hour. No chance of being caught in a mine explosion but payoff a helluva lot less than $50,000. If $50000 to a miner isn't good money, why would they do it? Because it is a bunch of money to them dude.
lf we don't demand that the news fully confirm reports through multiple sources before announcing it, this will happen again and again. The news is all about who can "break" the story, not who can report it accurately.
This is one time that I don't fault the media as it was not them who broke the news that 12 were alive. It seems like someone in the command center misunderstood radio communications from the rescuers underground, then called a family member or two in the church. I don't believe the media knew anything about this until the families started to celebrate. After that, the media had to report the celebrations coming from the church, and even the governor came out of the church and gave a thumbs up sign to to the media. But I do blame the media for making too much out of this miscommunication instead of focusing on the tragedy and the reasons why it happened.
You are right that they make much more money than many other jobs in those areas. I looked up the income in WV and the average salary is about $25K. Wyoming and WV are the two largest coal producers, but they are also two of the poorest states. While coal miners make more than many other jobs in their area, they are probably on the low end of the middle class. You do what you have to do to feed your family...
