
In an Oil Boom Town, Even a Barber Can Make $180k - NearAP
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-this-oil-boom-town-even-a-barber-can-make-180-000-11551436210
======
sandworm101
Barbar /= "Barbershop owner".

I am really sick of reading about "carpenters" and "plumbers" in these
articles. These are people who own and operate small businesses, with
employees. We have a local billionaire (Jim Paterson) who people jokingly call
a "used car salesman". He didn't make his millions selling cars. He made
billions by owning the car dealerships where other people sold cars for him.
Wealth comes now from operating a business but from owning it.

~~~
jasonlotito
I hear what you are saying, but how many of these people were able to start as
a barber, carpenter, or plumber, and build up there business from there? If a
barber starts their shop, and off the back of their effort, are able to bring
others in to work for them, isn't this effectively the barber earning that?

The barber, using their skills, were able to start a small business that hired
others. It's not merely a case of some non-barber just buying a small business
that happened to be cutting people's hair. So while they didn't start at 180k,
they ended up there because of barbering.

~~~
mj_olnir
You're right, except for the fact that it wasn't the skillset obtained by
being a barber that helped build the business - it was the person's business
acumen.

You can be great at cutting hair, but abysmal at leading individuals, much
less operating a business.

~~~
sandworm101
Business acumen, access to credit, a market niche, decent regulatory
environment... and a bunch of other stuff. Mobile barbershops might not even
be legal in many places. It is a very regulated area. More training to cut
hair than be an EMT.

------
tibbon
I encountered similar in Wyoming in 2014 when driving through. I was on
motorcycle and needed a place for the night. The one city (name I can't
recall) where I was ending up at sunset looked ok; but I was shocked that I
could barely find a hotel room under $200/night. Apparently that had become
the normal (I got one for $130/night eventually after calling literally
everywhere in town), due to the oil business there. The people at the desk
told me fast food places were starting people at $15/hr, because there was
just so much demand for absolutely anyone to work there.

For context, in other equally rural places such as South Dakota, I think I was
spending a princely $30/night at cheap motels, but there were none to be found
there.

------
howard941
[https://causeaction.com/2019/03/01/in-this-oil-boom-town-
eve...](https://causeaction.com/2019/03/01/in-this-oil-boom-town-even-barber-
can-make-180000/)

~~~
neonate
[https://outline.com/PJ8Pxw](https://outline.com/PJ8Pxw) also works but
doesn't have the photos.

~~~
krastanov
Isn't it a bit questionable to use these services to subvert paywalls? I
dislike the notion of DRM and paywalls and I especially abhor it when it is
limiting access to academic papers, but if a content creator does not want to
give you access to their content without you paying, it seems reasonable to
comply with their wishes.

~~~
tzs
I can't find it now, but there is a comment from an HN moderator from a while
back saying that it is OK to link to such pirated paywall news content if the
usual tricks for bypassing the paywall (such as going to the site via a Google
search result) don't work.

~~~
howard941
The _Are paywalls ok?_ FAQ at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)
?

~~~
tzs
I was thinking about an actual comment from a moderator in a regular thread
discussion. In almost all the discussion I've seen from the mods when they
talk about "workarounds" they were referring to ways to read the article on
the original site.

For example, searching for the article's title to find the link on Google and
clicking that, or following the link in a private browsing window (often works
for sites that give everyone N free articles per month).

I never got the impression that linking to pirate copies of the article
counted, but then found a moderator comment that said it was OK. I don't
remember the exact context, but I think it was in a thread where an account
that posts a lot of such links did so, someone asked if this was OK, and a
moderator said it was.

------
hiei
I'm curious what the crime rates are like in these oil boom towns.

~~~
hluska
I live in a city whose boom ended a few years ago. After it ended, it was
fascinating counting how many former oil workers with substance issues ended
up in our local paper’s criminal court coverage.

------
whatshisface
Shale is not going to last for much longer. Halliburton has already started
the layoffs.

~~~
the_economist
Some estimates say that 90% of earth's oil is in shale rock.

~~~
jandrese
Maybe, but we can't use it without killing the planet. We've already burned
too much oil.

~~~
philwelch
Petroleum has many uses that don't involve burning it as fuel.

~~~
whatshisface
According to this Wikipedia page[0], 81% of every barrel of oil is used for
fuel. Although dropping to 1/5th size is not the same as going away, it won't
be a very enjoyable ride. The picture might get even worse for petroleum as a
chemical precursor once the economies of scale supported by fuel use go away.

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_product](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_product)

------
kraig911
I grew up in this area. From boom to bust every 10 years. I wonder why nobody
can save here then I realize there's literally nothing worth saving for when I
lived there.

------
rcMgD2BwE72F
In this oil world, few hope to make some quick bucks while putting mankind's
future at stake.

~~~
whatshisface
It's unfair to blame the drillers for producing oil and endangering humanity's
future when, clearly, our entire society is in on it. Although you can surely
blame them for being irresponsible and releasing fracking chemicals all over
the place, that is on them.

~~~
tw04
We are?

What are "our" options? As far as I can tell my option is to lose my job
entirely by not buying any gasoline at the pump in protest. Or write my local
senator/congressman who has little control or care.

It's not like there is a "shale oil" pump vs. a non shale oil pump at the
local gas station. And asking the majority of the population to pick up and
move close to their work (and then hope they have that job for eternity)
doesn't really seem like a reasonable solution either.

I think it's entirely reasonable to lay the blame at the feet of the people
actually doing it. Just like when the CIA was torturing Iraqi's it was
entirely reasonable to lay the blame for torture at their feet vs. copping out
by saying "the whole country is to blame".

~~~
CompelTechnic
In all likelihood, you're currently living in a way that environmentalists
would describe as unsustainable, but still shaking your fist at society. This
is hypocritical. There are two paths to avoid this hypocrisy:

1\. Buy an electric car. Live in a smaller home. Consume fewer material goods.
Set your heat cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Do what you can and
actually put your money and lifestyle where your mouth is.

The electric car will cost more than your gasoline powered car. You will be
uncomfortable. Depending on your viewpoints about stoicism and hedonic
adaptation, this won't actually be so bad. However, you will be actionably
pulling society in the direction of living in a sustainable way.

2\. Decide that you do not care about global warming. Either deny its
existence, come to the conclusion that the net effects on planet earth will
not be severe enough to be worth the cost to prevent it, or come to the
conclusion that it is an unsolvable collective action problem.

Shaking your fist is virtue signalling. Do something.

~~~
rcMgD2BwE72F
>1\. Buy an electric car. Live in a smaller home.

Better: move to a city, sell your car and buy bikes for your family. Live in a
flat.

Edit: as a comment to tw04's reply, do you really believe that the owners and
banks of fracking companies choose to ignore changes in demand when investing
in decades' long projects? If so, you should just fight capitalism because it
would be the most stupid system of capital allocation one can think of.

~~~
bluGill
Many of us work in a suburban office park with ZERO places to live in walking
distance, and no bus service. Even if you count bike distance, the office park
really needs more workers than zoning codes all to live in a comfortable
distance (don't forget the getting over/around hiways often adds significant
distance to a commute)

