2014-2015 -- 56% of Big Island Coral Died

[geochem]

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Originally posted by kalakoa

While it is entirely possible that the workers are being exploited -- someone should ask them how they feel about this...

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As I understand some of the news stories, many of these workers have re-upped multiple times... do we need to ask them?

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...the bigger problem is that the industry is exploiting loopholes to unfairly compete in the market: they don't have to pay minimum wage, or unemployment or worker's comp, or provide health insurance. How is that fair?

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To paraphrase our past president Clinton (and, please God, may his memory fade ever faster) "Define fair..." Fair to whom? I would much rather see the money I spend go to a guy who is struggling to support his family than to a far more amply-paid guy struggling to make a payment on a new monster truck...

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If it's okay to skip all the regulations "because offshore", then where's our exemption from the Jones Act? Freight barges are "offshore" too right?

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Can't argue with that... it isn't fair to have a few coastal and island states be forced to pay the costs of maintaining a US-based maritime industry. Couldn't possibly argue otherwise. In this case, the unionized maritime industry has, for too long, been successful with their narrative, but the victim states don't have the clout to change things.

I take comfort in a quote, whose author I can't track down at the moment: "If the world was fair, few of us would escape hanging..." or some such.