Nobody gave a fuck when cheaper programmers in India took away a ton of IT jobs here in the U.S.

who would work for much lower salaries. They were told that americans will not do those jobs (even though americans obviously were doing the jobs) and that the displaced should just get more education/training.

Overall however, I suppose the lowering of housing/construction costs due to labor (or the reduction in amount of increase maybe) make it all OK. Or maybe not .....

another does not. The capitalistic system we have today is always based, generally, on one group losing, seldom is it a win/win ... that's because it's often rigged and predators, the greedy and the unscrupulous work the system, and sociopaths and/or those with that type of personality do just fine. I'm not saying I have a better system, but IMO a highly regulated capitalistic system could work fine.

Understand your point. But its not just a guy in an oil State that's now unemployed. The amout of people employed directly or indirectly in the Bakken oil patch is pretty staggering.
I am not cheering for any group of people who lose their jobs to the power games of the multi billionaires of OPEC.

Yes I get what you are saying but many will be without income. I can't get excited at the thought of any group who's lives are put in jeopardy by the power games of the billionaires of this world.
Its certainly not just one or a few people.

be very hard on a lot of people who thought their hard work and choices were going to improve their situation. It's unfortunate in the 21st century, we still have and reinforce a system that really screws the majority of the people one way or another at some time. Quite indicative of a system with a severely skewed distribution of wealth.

More people, going out, spending more money, allowing more people to be able to spend more money, allowing more people go out to spend more...

That's the thing about an interrelated complex world. Everyone can't have everything.

always has been and always will be.

When oil is cheap... burn baby burn...

Last edited Tue Jan 6, 2015, 04:30 PM - Edit history (1)

"That ND unemployed oil guy will get another job..."

Hopefully, a job cleaning up the mess our excessive reliance on convenient energy creates-- if he gets one at all.



Or if he doesn't, the 700 steelworkers being laid-off in Cleveland and Houston might. But, "fuck them" too, right?

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/pittsburgh-company-news/2015/01/06/Falling-oil-prices-to-blame-for-more-than-700-U-S-Steel-layoffs/stories/201501060158

how some do not really understand the economy and how it works, no excuses.

Great post, however I feel you are preaching to the wrong crowd.

there is excessive supply and lower demand.
Does that signal a weakening global economy?
Are the suppliers flooding the market to kill alternative energy?
Prices don't happen in a vacuum.

The speculators have driven up the price of oil for a long time now, and it's finally come back to bite them in the butt. Prices have been manipulated for higher and higher profits, and the demand for diesel over the last few years has pushed gasoline supplies to the point they can no longer store the excess supplies of gas.

Bush helped push prices up into the $100 range and now prices are going down to where they should have been all the time, or as some think, maybe even lower, at least till the excess supplies are sold off.

As for lost jobs, yes that will happen, but if republicans get their heads out of their butt, and actually start passing bills to fix the infrastructure around the country, those laid off will find new jobs, along will millions of others who need work. I read where "thousands" of jobs will be lost because of the low oil prices, but millions were lost because of the Bush recession. Something republicans fail to admit.

A few million people in Bangladesh might have to either abandon their homes or drown in the rising seas, but fuck'em, right? We need our cheap gas to fuel an economy based upon never-ending growth and consumption!

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/05/3607735/2014-hottest-year-by-far/

Wall Street sucks pensions into the casino and naturally people are going to want the markets to rise. Insurance baby! Don't touch those markets!

"Do whatever you have to, boys, to pump 'em up! I wanna retire and buy a boat someday!"