"The prison is coming to town! Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!"
I remember hearing this mantra while covering a community meeting, organized to get community input on the new federal prison. I was a young reporter for a weekly newspaper in one of our rural West Virginia counties.
Some said the community meeting was nothing more than a formality or public appearance of "input." These folks "in the know" said the prison had long already been a "done deal" decided by the powerful folks who owned / ran the county.
I can't speak to whether that is true or not (I'm sure there is much more to it than the above simple "explanation").
Yet, looking back on the coming of the prison, I remember we indeed had voices in our community who questioned the nature of the so-called "jobs" and "economic benefits" which the prison promised to bring.
It's true the prison did bring some jobs (I had a friend who worked a while there as a prison guard). More businesses seem to have opened in the rural county (some catering to visitors of prisoners, mostly families from out of state) than when I lived there more than 15 years ago.
However, it seems likely that the oil & gas boom has had a much stronger impact on the economy than the prison.
Taking a larger-picture, broader view, it's also true that there was once a shoe factory in that rural West Virginia county.
Looking across the past landscape of West Virginia, it's common knowledge our state once had a far greater population and far more diversity of industry.
At one time, it seemed nearly every county had a mainstay industry or industries that had nothing to do with prisons.
People in West Virginia once made numerous glass products, from marbles to vases and fine dinner ware. We made tools, such as the now valued ax once made by Kelly Axe & Tool Co. in Charleston, West Virginia. And we even made toys here in Appalachia, such as the Louis Marx Toys, the Glen Dale Marx Factory (see the Marx Toy Museum dedicated to the history of this toy-making).
Growing up in the 1980s, I remember many of my toys being made in Hong Kong and Taiwan. (Some toys like the now collectible Fisher Price were still made in the U.S.A. into the late 1970s or early 1980s.) The 1980s seemed to mark the final death knell of many our domestic consumer-product industries. I've heard, for example, Seneca Glass Company here in Morgantown closed in the 1980s.
My childhood growing up in the 80s seemed to mark the end of many American & U.S.A.-made consumer products and industries. The 1990s saw the fast rise of Wally World, which moved into rural areas which once had factories, selling our favorite "cheaper" "Made In" country (not the U.S.)
Many say these changes and the closing of so many of our domestic consumer-production industries "was an inevitable result of globalization" or "a significant advance in our quality of life resulting from advances in technology." (Note: I'm not discounting the realities or impact of increasing technology, but I'm a questioner of how technology is used...)
"Globalization" remains today portrayed by those at the top as "free trade." But is it? Is "globalization" truly "free trade" or is it actually something else, something the world has seen before, many times over?
As evidenced from approximately 1 in 100 Americans now behind bars, and despite the abundance of materialism in "cheap" consumer goods, it seems apparent that "globalization" benefits those at the top far more than it benefits millions of our citizens on the bottom who today struggle with stringing together 2-3 part-time "jobs" with wages so low as not to constitute real pay for real work. (Our "minimum wage" is not real compensation because it remains unchanged for decades as inflation built into the economy and privileged industries or faulty "laws" increase costs vastly... the result is millions of people work their whole lives in a kind of modern slavery...)
While we all understand the realities of global competition and the important lesson to be learned from the failures of protectionism, dangers of Smoot-Hawley style tariffs, etc., it seems we haven't learned how pendulums swing in both directions: We have a corollary lesson to learn from believing too much in the promises of something which doesn't exist, such as the claims of purportedly "free trade" advocates.
As a West Virginian, I can only say our people here in Appalachia have been paying the true costs for many, many years. Treated as an American colony within America, existing to export our resources and wealth, we have paid more than our share, not only in lost jobs, but in the percentages of our state's people spilling our blood in war.
Today our state continues to lose population following a long exodus of folks searching in other places for decent paying jobs. Yet, West Virginia once attracted people and had far more diversity of industry and jobs.
Looking back on that community meeting I covered years ago in a rural county desperate for any possible economic benefit, I have strong questions today regarding the true costs and true nature of any "economy" which depends on massive unsustainable debt and a corollary "system" of prisons and overseas totalitarian societies or virtual slave-labor populations, and/or never-ending manufactured, self-perpetuating warfare, to prop itself up...
Behind all the masks, such a global Plantation seems to be the true nature of the so-called "free-trade, global economy" today.
Is this "global economy" real? Or is it just the Joker's or Puppet Master's House of Cards?
Can any society truly "prison" its way to "prosperity"?
West Virginia, like other desperate rural areas, has ostensibly gained "jobs" through increasing numbers of prisoners and prisons.
But the far more important question is:
What have we lost?
I remember hearing this mantra while covering a community meeting, organized to get community input on the new federal prison. I was a young reporter for a weekly newspaper in one of our rural West Virginia counties.
Some said the community meeting was nothing more than a formality or public appearance of "input." These folks "in the know" said the prison had long already been a "done deal" decided by the powerful folks who owned / ran the county.
I can't speak to whether that is true or not (I'm sure there is much more to it than the above simple "explanation").
Yet, looking back on the coming of the prison, I remember we indeed had voices in our community who questioned the nature of the so-called "jobs" and "economic benefits" which the prison promised to bring.
It's true the prison did bring some jobs (I had a friend who worked a while there as a prison guard). More businesses seem to have opened in the rural county (some catering to visitors of prisoners, mostly families from out of state) than when I lived there more than 15 years ago.
However, it seems likely that the oil & gas boom has had a much stronger impact on the economy than the prison.
Taking a larger-picture, broader view, it's also true that there was once a shoe factory in that rural West Virginia county.
Looking across the past landscape of West Virginia, it's common knowledge our state once had a far greater population and far more diversity of industry.
At one time, it seemed nearly every county had a mainstay industry or industries that had nothing to do with prisons.
People in West Virginia once made numerous glass products, from marbles to vases and fine dinner ware. We made tools, such as the now valued ax once made by Kelly Axe & Tool Co. in Charleston, West Virginia. And we even made toys here in Appalachia, such as the Louis Marx Toys, the Glen Dale Marx Factory (see the Marx Toy Museum dedicated to the history of this toy-making).
Growing up in the 1980s, I remember many of my toys being made in Hong Kong and Taiwan. (Some toys like the now collectible Fisher Price were still made in the U.S.A. into the late 1970s or early 1980s.) The 1980s seemed to mark the final death knell of many our domestic consumer-product industries. I've heard, for example, Seneca Glass Company here in Morgantown closed in the 1980s.
My childhood growing up in the 80s seemed to mark the end of many American & U.S.A.-made consumer products and industries. The 1990s saw the fast rise of Wally World, which moved into rural areas which once had factories, selling our favorite "cheaper" "Made In" country (not the U.S.)
Many say these changes and the closing of so many of our domestic consumer-production industries "was an inevitable result of globalization" or "a significant advance in our quality of life resulting from advances in technology." (Note: I'm not discounting the realities or impact of increasing technology, but I'm a questioner of how technology is used...)
"Globalization" remains today portrayed by those at the top as "free trade." But is it? Is "globalization" truly "free trade" or is it actually something else, something the world has seen before, many times over?
As evidenced from approximately 1 in 100 Americans now behind bars, and despite the abundance of materialism in "cheap" consumer goods, it seems apparent that "globalization" benefits those at the top far more than it benefits millions of our citizens on the bottom who today struggle with stringing together 2-3 part-time "jobs" with wages so low as not to constitute real pay for real work. (Our "minimum wage" is not real compensation because it remains unchanged for decades as inflation built into the economy and privileged industries or faulty "laws" increase costs vastly... the result is millions of people work their whole lives in a kind of modern slavery...)
While we all understand the realities of global competition and the important lesson to be learned from the failures of protectionism, dangers of Smoot-Hawley style tariffs, etc., it seems we haven't learned how pendulums swing in both directions: We have a corollary lesson to learn from believing too much in the promises of something which doesn't exist, such as the claims of purportedly "free trade" advocates.
- Scientifically or economically speaking, should the countless jobs shipped off in a wholesale manner overseas, accelerating in the 1980s, have happened in such vast numbers and so quickly? Why did it happen the way it did?
- Should the U.S. have engaged in special "trade agreements" with countries which are one-party states or do not have worker protection or environmental laws which many of our citizens were jailed for, beaten or died to achieve over decades of building our nation? Are products truly always "cheaper" being made overseas? Or are there many hidden or disguised costs?
- Or should special trade agreements have been reserved only for those countries more similar to the U.S. in terms of structure and history?
- How can "trade be free" in reality? Is anything in this world "free"? What is the true cost?
As a West Virginian, I can only say our people here in Appalachia have been paying the true costs for many, many years. Treated as an American colony within America, existing to export our resources and wealth, we have paid more than our share, not only in lost jobs, but in the percentages of our state's people spilling our blood in war.
Today our state continues to lose population following a long exodus of folks searching in other places for decent paying jobs. Yet, West Virginia once attracted people and had far more diversity of industry and jobs.
Looking back on that community meeting I covered years ago in a rural county desperate for any possible economic benefit, I have strong questions today regarding the true costs and true nature of any "economy" which depends on massive unsustainable debt and a corollary "system" of prisons and overseas totalitarian societies or virtual slave-labor populations, and/or never-ending manufactured, self-perpetuating warfare, to prop itself up...
Behind all the masks, such a global Plantation seems to be the true nature of the so-called "free-trade, global economy" today.
Is this "global economy" real? Or is it just the Joker's or Puppet Master's House of Cards?
Can any society truly "prison" its way to "prosperity"?
West Virginia, like other desperate rural areas, has ostensibly gained "jobs" through increasing numbers of prisoners and prisons.
But the far more important question is:
What have we lost?
Here is the continuation of our 15-year-old friend, Simon Laramie, speaking about what the world of 2045 might be like, if we continue on our current trajectory...
Excerpt below from Chapter 1: Breaking Tradition: Theodore Webb's The STARLING Connection. (Note: Most of the first four chapters can be read for FREE by clicking the cover pic on the e-book's Amazon page.)
Excerpt below from Chapter 1: Breaking Tradition: Theodore Webb's The STARLING Connection. (Note: Most of the first four chapters can be read for FREE by clicking the cover pic on the e-book's Amazon page.)
I guess it doesn’t really matter if you’re in a Recon Center or if you’re one of the lucky few chosen by an Employer. It’s all the same thing. No regular people like me ever get to own anything truly valuable in return for all our lives we spend working. It’s like this from the day we’re born until the day we die. Most people never actually own their time, work, ideas and energy. Most people don’t own their lives. Someone else does.
You’re supposed to be reconditioned and then let out. PATRIOT SECURITY says you’re “rehabilitated” at that point. But like I say, I’ve never actually seen or met anyone who was in a Recon Center. I’ve heard once you’re in there, it’s really hard to get out. That’s why no one wants to do anything bad.
Yeah, I’ve also heard there are a lot more people in the Recon Centers than outside of them. Some guess it’s something like for every 20 citizens there are 15 of us in a Recon Center. It could be more than that, but no one really knows exactly. A lot of towns have more than one Recon Center. Like here in Briarwood, they’re building our third one. Each one’s bigger than the last. Every new center’s supposed to bring in more jobs for all the people building it. There are more jobs for the guards and the people who build and maintain The Drones and cheetahs too.
Our rural areas have "gained jobs" through prisons.
But...
What have we lost?
Read "The STARLING Connection."
But...
What have we lost?
Read "The STARLING Connection."
Click pic to read "The STARLING Connection."
