Not to mention all of the cost in gathering the coal/natural gas itself.

I'm 37 and don't know a single person in my age range who doesn't either use it or know exactly what it is. If you changed your 30 to 45 or 50(Coincidently Bowling for Soups age) I would agree.

I am guessing it's pretty rare, but he could have just had bad experience with a union. I work for a municipal utility/ISP and am covered under the local IBEW because of that. While I am still pro-union and pro-worker, and I realize my situation is sort of unique, I will give a few of the "meh's" about it from my angle.

• Over the last 15 years we have an average of 2.1% yearly wage increase, and that's with the last 3 years each being 3%. From what I see online that is below average.

• It is very hard to get rid of someone that is bad at their job. We had a tech banned from many of our larger customers locations(including other state owned businesses!), taken to court because of the quality of his work, and generally just gave a shit about nothing. The union made it such a pain to demote or fire him that the company basically gave up. It took a giant toll on the morale of the entire place.

• Our benefits are not great, but not horrible. Oddly enough even the other city employees that aren't part of the union have better. Our health insurance premiums went up 15% this year, which they squeezed in just after saying how amazingly lucky we are for getting a 3% raise.

You are not wrong. Just want to point out that it varies on the interest of the loan. An extra payment per year on a 30-year loan at 9% gives you 8 years off, but an extra payment on a 4% loan gives you 4 years off.