Imagine the grief I'd get if I lost my job and claimed not to be able to find another for the next three decades.
I doubt there'd be much (any) sympathy coming from you or anyone else
So why give the (ex)miners a free ride?
Can someone explain...
- Thread starter FoxEye
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I doubt there'd be much (any) sympathy coming from you or anyone else
So why give the (ex)miners a free ride?
All you did there is dodge the question. If I spent two or three decades unemployed how much sympathy would I get here?
Nobody is failing to understand why an area might be impacted by the loss of its biggest employer.
What is striking is the fact that 30 years have past and they're still "suffering" from the closure of the mines. 30 years is 1.5 generations. Heck, their kids should have been to school, perhaps got a degree, and could be doing anything. The miners themselves could well have retired by now.
**** happens. People lose their jobs all the time. Am I supposed to feel bad for them, 30 years (and potentially countless jobs) later? Sorry, can't bring myself to have sympathy for a job they lost 30 years ago.
It's practically ancient history.
What this thread shows is the capacity for bitterness to survive many, many decades. But I don't give a fig for your bitterness, and don't believe we should tread on eggshells because you've got a massive chip on your shoulder.
You know all those gold rush towns that cropped up? When the gold ran out they dismantled the towns and left.
If you have a town where the sole industry is closed down, maybe your first choice should be to go somewhere else. In the thread that Boycey was keen to bring into this discussion that was the #1 piece of advice given to me. "Move if you want more money." As it happens I didn't want the extra money enough to uproot. If these miners couldn't find any other work it strikes me they had much more reason to move than I do. I may not earn a fortune but I have no problems finding work at least.
If we're measuring "suffering" purely in terms of the population being smaller with lots of run-down areas and empty housing... I just see that as part of the cycle of birth and death. If you stay in a dying area when you have a choice to leave, then you can't really blame anyone else but yourself.
I recall saying that Cornwall is a depressed area with mostly low-wages. But that in itself isn't the issue. The problem (this is off-topic and I'm not going to respond in detail) is that Cornwall has low wages coupled with a very high cost of living.
I couldn't care less what people think about my own situation, lol. I had a choice to stay or leave and chose to stay because I'm comfortable here, and I'm extremely risk averse. Just part of my nature. But things would be very different if I couldn't find work and had no prospects of doing so. Then I would feel that there was no choice and I'd have to move. As it is I'm on UK nat avg wage (just under) which is enough to get by.
My biggest gripe isn't what I earn (in a vacuum this means nothing) but how big the gulf between earnings and house prices is down here. Absolutely no hope of ever owning a place in Cornwall with 1x nat avg UK wage. Unless they start doing 75 year mortgages
Must a generational thing. The people in that pic are a lot older than me.
Speaking to parents, etc, a common theme is how many of them believe life was better 20,30,40 years ago. Just nostalgic/living in the past, I would say.
I guess in a decade or two most people won't really care too much about coal mines that closed 40-50 years ago.
Speaking to parents, etc, a common theme is how many of them believe life was better 20,30,40 years ago. Just nostalgic/living in the past, I would say.
I guess in a decade or two most people won't really care too much about coal mines that closed 40-50 years ago.
Just LOL. They really do have a chip on their shoulder about the loss of their mines, 30 years ago.
Imagine if the Cornish were still bitter about losing their tin and copper mines. The last of those closed at about the same time - although most had already closed by the start of the 20th century.
We're certainly interested in our mining heritage, although these days we're still paying for it in terms of environmental impact and long-running cleanup operations. But Cornwall long ago moved on. Obvs 30 years aint enough time. But hopefully in another 30 they'll be less bitter about it.
LOLs. You have no idea what you're talking about, if you think that being a site of historical significance (note the word "historical") implies bitterness that the past is not the present.
In fact that makes absolutely zero sense. Good job!
Do you think that because Rome restores and protects the Colosseum (etc) that they are still bitter about the loss of the Roman empire? Such a weak retort.