[Coach_Owens87]

I bring up Bill O'rielly becuase you and him both think your right on everything, but both of you have your facts completely wrong. And there will never be a day when I am a viewer of Hannity, he just may be a bigger idiot than O'Rielly. As I stated before, any network that gives memos telling their employees exactly what to say has lost all credibility as a trustworthy journalistic organization.

As for my comparison, I find it very fair to compare to county economies, relatively close in distance, and relatively close in population. Now If I compared Knott County, to say Orange County Florida, that would be an unfair comparison. I was just trying to show that other counties in this same region have just as good as an economy as we do, and they don't produce coal.

I did say that our economy would be in the same shape it is now without coal, but that doesn't mean coal doesn't have an impact on our economy, It does, I never implied that. I was just simply stating that without coal, other jobs would emerge and our economy would be relatively the same. Thats why I compared the coal-producing counties to non coal producing.

And please do not give the bull of coal companies playing savior. You list one example of a company buying a town, (and they're not even a coal company) but you don't mention the hundreds of other small coal towns in which life was miserable.
I mentioned that site because they set up an illusion that coal towns where loved by all and that life was prosperous and full of happiness, that just wasn't the case. You constantly say that the info I give is slanted and presents the wrong image, I was just proving that the coal companies are guilty of this also.

And try to come up with a better example, just where did this great deed from inland steel get Wheelwright? Nowhere, the company doesn't exist anymore and 40% of people in Wheelwright are below the poverty line. Im sure they're all lining up to thank inland steel for getting them to the prosperous point they are now.

You ask how our economy can survive without coal, what will push this economy? Well that is a problem we all must face, coal will not last forever. And it's a known fact that the coal producing counties of this region do not have a very diverse economy. So education is a very important step in getting diversity into our job market. After people get an education we need to offer jobs to these people in order to get them to stay in the region and kick start our economy. Coal companies claim that reclaimed surface mine sites are being used, but in reality they are not. As badly I hate to say this, some sites could be used for business purposes, while whats left of this areas mountains should be protected and use to attract tourism, which would bring in a load of jobs, hotels, businesses, attractions etc. Our economy can survive without coal, other areas of Appalachia are experiencing great economies without coal.

If all coal stopped being mined tomorrow, and our economy went bust, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We let this region revolve around one income. We let coal dominate this region and did not try to establish any other major occupations. Greedy rich companies and people have only worried about their selves and not what is best for this region.