The industry in Australia is currently working through the early stages of the transition to autonomous mining, so that problem is well on the way to being put down for good. Although we more or less solved that problem years ago with a little backsliding recently [0].

That 'mining breeds misery' comment is simply not correct for Australia; most miners are pretty chipper at all the money they are making relative to everyone else. May as well say 'overly abundant food breeds misery' or 'computer games breed misery'.

[0] https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/bla...