I've written about the unpleasantness of WV in other threads and here I go again.
Current WV politics are driven by desperation, lies and ego.
Well, the history books will talk about coal because that is what WV in the 20th Century is all about.
A few facts:
--WV is the only state with fewer people than in 1950. There are really two WV. The Eastern panhandle which mines no coal and is part of the I-81 corridor/Wash exurbs. The population there has gained 125,000 since 1950 and has gone from 3% of the state to 10%. The rest of the state has lost 280,000 people.
--WV was one of the youngest states in 1950 and now is the third oldest (behind Florida and Maine)
http://www.be.wvu.edu/bber/pdfs/BBER-2014-04.pdf--It ranks at the top or in the top three of states in the following categories:
Disability
Drug Overdose deaths (by far)
Adults who self medicate daily
Smoking
Obesity
Fewest Adults with college degree
Accidental deaths
WV lack of health and their age results in a
death rate 15% higher than the next state. Despite having the 6th highest teen birth rate, the overall birthrate for WV is below average (the only state in the top 10 teen births to pull off that feat). Again, there are two WV as the East Panhandle is younger and healthier, it has 750 more births than deaths, while the rest of the state has 2500 more deaths than births.
Their current workforce looks like this:
I don't have separate numbers for East panhandle, but they are younger and have fewer disability cases than the national average meaning that the rest of WV is even worse than it looks in that graph above.
Let turn to geography.
WV has a very difficult terrain to maintain infrastructure. Many, many coal towns have been completely abandoned after the coal ran out. Because of the terrain and the transitory nature of coal towns much of the infrastructure built tended to be bare minimum. The infrastructure that has survived is stretched across fewer people to pay for it's maintenance or upgrading to modern standards. Think of Detroit if it were stretched across mountains and hollows.
Coal mining jobs in WV peaked just before 1950 at around 120,000 were at 22,000 in 2008 and have dropped to around 16,000 this year. Coal jobs have declined for many reasons, technology, Wyoming coal, natural gas, more than one environmental movement (who can forget acid rain). There has never been a lack of a villain. So, WV has been combating declining coal jobs for seven decades now. Of course, their number one weapon for several decades was Sen. Robert Byrd and he dragged in anything he could for WV, not just much needed money for roads or water systems, but an FBI crime lab, a NASA facility, more than one Naval facility (think about that) so many federal prisons that almost 11,000 residents of the state (for census purposes) are federal prisoners.
But Senator Byrd is gone and there is no one with the fraction of the clout or skill to replace him and in fact one of the naval facilities recently closed (and despite a local politician's efforts, was not converted into a prison).
As for private development. Well, WV has very difficult terrain, an iffy infrastructure complicated by terrain, an old, disabled, declining work force with a wide variety of health issues. also, an educational attainment level that limits the state to more basic industries and jobs. Again the Eastern Panhandle is the exception due to it not being like the rest of the state and being located along a vibrant corridor.
It's easy to see why they cling so fanatically to coal and in my next post I'll explain why that ain't gonna work, and why those that tell them otherwise (pretty much every politician in the state) are steaming bags of inks.
