> Charles Perry wrote:
>

>> yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:1158165933.085472.86320@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>> Many rural Ohioans find themselves down and out
>> Families struggle as well-paying jobs vanish
>> Wednesday, September 13, 2006
>> Barb Galbincea, Plain Dealer Reporter
>>
>>
>> -----------------
>>
>> That area of Ohio was very hard hit by the Clean Air Act. It basically
>> killed the high sulpher coal industry. Ohio's coal is all high sulpher.
>> Oh well, at least the people breathe better as they starve.

>
> If people are made worse off by government action that basically forbids
> people to earn a living the way they previously did, taxpayers should
> compensate them. That doesn't mean putting them on the dole forever, but
> money for retraining should be allocated.
>
> This particular couple in the story, however, seem to exemplify the hard
> life lesson for those who don't get much education. It's a pretty safe
> bet that somewhere along the way, teachers and others were encouraging
> Brian and Melissa Barringer to work harder in school and acquire more
> education. The story doesn't indicate how much school either one
> completed, but it's hard to imagine it was very much.
>
> Life is full of choices, and you have to live with ones you made in the
> past and make in the present. Another paragraph in the story illustrates
> one:
>
> Experts say living in the country comes with its own
> set of challenges for people with limited incomes:
> Fewer job opportunities, lower wages, little if any
> public transportation, limited access to child care
> and fewer social supports.
>
> But immediately before that, we read, "Yet, like the Barringers, whose
> neighbors on a road near Hockingport
> are also relatives, many can't imagine living anywhere else." So they're
> making a choice: stay with what's socially comfortable to them, and be
> poor.
>
> What's done is done - we're not going to to back to burning high-sulfur
> coal. The question now is, what does society owe to people like the
> Barringers? I can tell you what society does *not* owe them: guaranteed
> security.
>