Oh yeah, Dean Heller's still in Congress, isn't he?

Yes, yes, Nevada's economy, custom, culture — the state's very way of life — would be irreversibly destroyed if transnational mining conglomerates headquartered in other countries had to actually start paying America for American's gold in the course of safeguarding the world's strategic earring reserves. Everybody knows that.

But at a mining corporation support group meeting, or as some participants dubbed it, a congressional field hearing on federal mining law, War Party congressman and trophy husband Dean Heller said something that was certainly news to us.

From AP:

Heller noted the industry is the second largest in Nevada after gambling, with about 11,000 residents who work directly in mining and another 52,000 who support the industry.

According to state employment figures, as of July, "natural resources and mining" accounted for more than 12,000 workers in the state. So Heller was actually understating his case.

But then...

"Casino, hotels and gaming" leads all Nevada industrial sectors with 216,000 employees. Other sectors, and the number of workers they employ, include but are not limited to:

• construction, 142,000
• manufacturing, 52,000
• "Transportation, warehousing and utilities," 53,000
• Finance and insurance, 38,000
• Health care and assistance, 85,000

That's not counting a lot of people — for instance, the 140,000 workers in retail trade, or the 90,000 or so working in food service and accommodations that the state doesn't tally directly in the casino/hotel/gaming category. We'll generously leave those aside on the assumption that Heller might characterize them as "secondary" or perhaps "support" industries, not "primary" industries like mining or gaming, so it's not fair to compare them to mining.

Similarly, let's just ignore (Heller does!) the 148,000 Nevadans who work for the federal, state and local government, because Heller is one of those people who thinks the state's economy would be much more vibrant if we didn't have any roads or schools or health and safety regulations or police or ...

Inasmuch as we are no longer in 1953, some number-crunching analytical egghead or another probably wouldn't mind arguing that retail and food service are, in point of fact, primary industries, just like mining, in the contemporary economy. And only wingnut blowhards trying to score cheap rhetorical points deny that government is a legitimate employment sector and a key contributor to the economy.

But, really, the semantics don't matter. The industries listed after the bullets above are undeniably "primary" industries, and the size of the workforce in those sectors are more than enough to illustrate that when Heller contends mining is the state's second largest industry, he's either deliberately lying about his state's fundamental economic structure, or an idiot congressman who is ignorant of it. Though the two aren't mutually exclusive, s'pose.

Comments

[Keeping Them Honest]

Is there something in the water in that district? Before this jerk-off there was Gibbons, who apparently avoided raping women within his district, confining himself to Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas.

[Johnathan L. Abbinett]

Did he ever get around to hiring someone to answer his phone and is his FAX machine working yet?

[Desert Beacon]

Worse yet, if one digs into the DETR figures one more layer down, it's reasonably obvious that Rep. Heller isn't too clear on the major employers in the counties that comprise his own district. In the most populous part of his district (Reno,Sparks, Carson city) mining is certainly not the major industry.

Mining in northwestern Nevada is minimal: Reno-Sparks MSA
Natural Resources and Mining - 0.4 (x1000 Carson City- Natural Resources and Mining 0.0

Mining might be the second largest employer in Elko County, and the school district employment does mirror mining, but the border casinos are equally large operations, if not larger.

Elko: DETR Nevada Employer Directory for Elko County lists the Queenstake Mining operation with 300-399 employees; Newmont with 200-299 employees; Dynatec Mining with 200-299 employees. Elko city and county government including the Elko county school district is listed as having a range of 1000-1499 employees. The "border casinos" at Jackpot and Wendover employ more than the mines.

[kaye]

most of mining "employees" are employed by contractors who perform the work at mines and wouldn't show in the figures noted. Not a fan of the retard but wanted to clarify. Am one of those contractors and have 70 employees at the mines.

[Desert Beacon]

Interesting! And, do you know how many employees, or what percentage, might be "off the books" in terms of the DETR estimates; or, do the DETR estimates include contract employees? Why is this beginning to sound like Iraq? Employers...contractors...subcontractors.

The Gleaner's main point still holds, however, that in terms of the major industries in the state mining really isn't in the top tier.

[What?!]

Secretary of State Ross Miller, please tell us if you have found/discovered/exposed any funny business that was done by your predesessor, Heller.

Be like Kate.

[The Penguin]

The Heller guy shore has a purty mouth.

[Shhhh]

Penquin,
I have heard that that is what the fellas say.

[Kaye]

Indeed..the rest of the state doesn't understand Elko. Just the Environmental reclamation engineers alone comprise a large population, let alone the MSHA safety people, the thousands of employees employed by contractors to service every aspect of enormous mines. The industry affects every part of of this community. My dinner with even a veterianian was interrupted last week when by a fluke a deer had somehow made it into a cyanide pond and he was helicoptered to give it CPR. Born and raised in Vegas..it's an entirely different world here...and yes...can easily see mining being the 2nd largest industry easily.