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Comment by driggs | Hacker News Reader

Meanwhile our coal baron Governor is trumpeting that the State of West Virginia has a historic record $1.8-billion tax surplus this year:

https://governor.wv.gov/News/press-releases/2023/Pages/Gov.-...

And we're forcing the primary state university to gut its programs and/or risk complete shutdown over $45-million budget deficit, partially due to inadequate state funding.

Why? Because - tragically - West Virginians pride themselves on ignorance, consistently vote against their own longterm best interests, and loathe the idea of liberal higher education in all its forms.

(To be fair, the current WVU administration is to blame for letting this get out of hand rather than proactive budget cuts, but eduction should also be one of our literally-poor state's biggest investments.)

This cynical perspective has been brought to you by a lifetime WV resident and WVU Computer Science grad, consistently disappointed by my state's active rejection of progress.

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> Why? Because - tragically - West Virginians pride themselves on ignorance, consistently vote against their own longterm best interests, and loathe the idea of liberal higher education in all its forms.

I'm tired of people saying that people vote against their own interests.

Is it so insane to believe that maybe they have different interests that don't make sense to you or me?

As long as they don’t complain when there is nothing left of value, that’s totally fine.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/solutions/2021/07/14/wes...

https://mooney.house.gov/west-virginia-losing-us-house-seat-...

https://www.wvnews.com/statejournal/news/we-have-this-viciou...

https://www.register-herald.com/news/life/w-va-leads-all-oth...

Thank you for the links. They look interesting and informative (and now, they're all saved in my Pocket list)

Then go ahead and explain why West Virginia is consistently and historically among the poorest, least educated, unhealthiest, and unhappiest states in the US.

It is a fact that West Virginians vote to perpetuate these circumstances. Our governor is the richest coal baron in the state, and we're going to overwhelmingly vote out centrist Joe Manchin to put that coal baron into the US Senate.

I've lived here for four decades, the son of a coal miner who was the son of a coal miner, the first person in my extended family to ever earn a college degree. Do you actually know what you're talking about, or are you just angrily shouting into the wind?

> Then go ahead and explain why West Virginia is consistently and historically among the poorest, least educated, unhealthiest, and unhappiest states in the US.

Can you really not imagine that some people don't care about money or education and instead care about other things that are seemingly unimportant to you?

There is a significant difference between "interests" and "best interests".

Unhealthiest. Unhappiest. These are literally studies where WV comes in at the bottom of the list. You just seem to be arguing for the sake of arguing.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/1...

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/most-unheal...

There is likely truth to what you're saying, but isn't it possible that the alternatives (to what they vote for) would make people even worse off? If you look around the world, there is a looooong way down from the standard of living in West Virginia (which people in some countries would dream to have).

> These are literally studies where WV comes in at the bottom of the list.

WV has been at the bottom of these lists for 50 years - and it has had a massive politic shift over the last 20...

It's almost as if things aren't as reductive as you think.

> I've lived here for four decades, the son of a coal miner who was the son of a coal miner, the first person in my extended family to ever earn a college degree. Do you actually know what you're talking about, or are you just angrily shouting into the wind?

Mon ami this is HN -- any posts that aren't about node.js or autism are generally people pissing into the wind

you’re tired of hearing people are irrational so your response is to assume they’re all rational and it’s simply beyond everyone else’s understanding?

Sure - define rational as people who agree with you, and rational as people who disagree with you.

I'm tired of people thinking the people who disagree with them must be morons and incapable of rationality, and that the people who agree with them are smart and rational.

People have different interests.

It's crazy unlikely given their sizes and endowments, but I am scared of Texas and Florida public universities pulling the same crap for the same reasons.

And yet this screed is representative of those West Virginians who make the state great. Hang in there.

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