Using the metaphor of William Freudenburg, who compared short term policy makers to drug addicts, the authors address the fact that communities often benefit from resource extraction in the short run while faring far worse in the long run. Despite this policy makers tend to promote resource extraction as a positive for economic growth, prompting the term “addictive economies”. They look in particular at mining counties in West Virginia, asking how counties relying on the two types of coal mining (Mountain Top Removal and underground mining) compare to each other as well as to other counties in terms of poverty.
The authors briefly outline the history of booms and busts of West Virginian coal mining and the current situation. They find that in general mining-dependent communities have a higher poverty rate than others. While mining jobs pay well there are generally no other opportunities. One problem with relying on one main industry is there is little incentive to diversify. As well mining is a primary industry; much of the money and opportunity lies in the secondary processes: refining and transforming coal so it can be used. The problem with coal mining is the problem of primary resource extraction around the world; these industries are far removed from the final product and local communities have no connection with the industry once the job is done. They are also dependent on many outside factors which they have little control over. This is a lesson development organizations and economics have unfortunately not yet learned, to the detriment of rural communities.
- Perdue, Robert Todd and Gregory Pavela. “Addictive Economies and Coal Dependency: Methods of Extraction and Socioeconomic Outcomes in West Virginia” From Organization and Environment, vol. 25, no. 4 (2012): 368-384.