Quote :

"The coal mines of Shanxi - China's largest coal-producing region - have attracted media scrutiny for some time. Last year, official figures show, 4,746 people died in mines - averaging 13 a day."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070119/wl_csm/oextort

1/20/2007 12:39:22 AM

Our eyes aren't slanted. Well, except Asian-Americans.

1/20/2007 1:06:18 AM

When you have a population that large, people become a renewable resource.

(No, I'm not serious so calm down...)

1/20/2007 1:21:08 AM

Well, hopefully the emerging capitalist China will have a labor movement like the one we had in the early 20th century that will improve working conditions for these workers. Hopefully if they do have independent unions eventually, they won't get so complacent and irrational like some of ours have these days.

Of course, if China continues to innovate and stay ahead of the curve (unlike, say, Ford), they won't reach that point, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

1/20/2007 2:00:00 AM

speaking of chinese coal....

youve got, what ~1.5 billion people over there in China, and they're just starting to really hit the ground as far as modern industrialization... if i recall correctly, they're said to be about where the US was at the turn of the 20th century in overall industrialization.

and they've got shittons of coal ready for powering their modernization.

so all you proud, SUV drivin, monster truck rally lovin, American flag wavin good-ole-boys wont have to complain about us enviromental whackos always playing "blame america first" regarding global warming....

because we're all going to be choking on china's exhaust fumes, shortly. unless you think they're going to spend $TEXAS on greening their power generation and consumption activities.

1/20/2007 2:45:40 AM

Unions are extraneous when it comes to work safety. They may result in safer work environments earlier than it otherwise would have been but their other effects (the cartellization of labor) inflict costs on society that exceed the benefits to the individual workers.

Dangerous jobs pay higher wages than safe jobs for a reason. If the job is dangerous then workers are less likely to accept them. As technology improves it becomes cheaper for business owners to make the job safer than it is to keep paying the high wages.

1/20/2007 10:15:21 AM

hold on let me get out my textbook too.

1/20/2007 12:47:42 PM

Quote :

"When you have a population that large, people become a renewable resource. (No Yes, I'm not serious so calm down...)"

1/20/2007 11:09:17 PM