7 ms·

In an Oil Boom Town, Even a Barber Can Make $180k

28 points by NearAP 8y ago

howard941 8y ago
https://causeaction.com/2019/03/01/in-this-oil-boom-town-even-barber-can-make-180000/ https://causeaction.com/2019/03/01/in-this-oil-boom-town-eve...
- neonate 8y ago
  https://outline.com/PJ8Pxw https://outline.com/PJ8Pxw also works but doesn't have the photos.
  - krastanov 8y ago
    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 8y ago
      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 8y ago
        The Are paywalls ok? FAQ at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html ?
        tzs 8y ago
        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.
rcMgD2BwE72F 8y ago
In this oil world, few hope to make some quick bucks while putting mankind's future at stake.
- tiredyam 8y ago
  eh sounds like all these people’s lives are significantly better. Also, it sounds like we aren’t shipping oil all the way across the world to be refined into gas nearly as much if we are getting directly from Texas. I could even imagine this being co2 net positive
  - rosser 8y ago
    Shale oil is well-known to have significantly higher CO₂ costs than conventional crude. At least it's (generally) EROEI-positive, finally (though much of that is a result of burning the lower grade stuff to fractionally distill off the higher grades, which materially contributes to the CO₂ problem...).
- whatshisface 8y ago
  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 8y ago
    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".
whatshisface 8y ago
Shale is not going to last for much longer. Halliburton has already started the layoffs.
- the_economist 8y ago
  Some estimates say that 90% of earth's oil is in shale rock.
  - jandrese 8y ago
    Maybe, but we can't use it without killing the planet. We've already burned too much oil.
    - philwelch 8y ago
      Petroleum has many uses that don't involve burning it as fuel.
      - numtel 8y ago
        It's the extraction process that's the problem with shale, moreso than the burning of the gas.
      - whatshisface 8y ago
        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
      - bluGill 8y ago
        Yes and no. Yes there are a lot of uses, but they amount to a small amount of our current oil use. If I read https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=41&t=6 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=41&t=6 right 75% of crude oil is burned directly as fuel. edit: note that my numbers are different than the wiki below. I suspect that is because of a difference in what counts for what...
hiei 8y ago
I'm curious what the crime rates are like in these oil boom towns.
- hluska 8y ago
  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.
sandworm101 8y ago
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 8y ago
  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 8y ago
    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.
    - jasonlotito 8y ago
      Good point. But I wonder if they would be just as successful in another business. e.g. If the barber suddenly opened up a restaurant. The important point is, it's the fact that this person with this set of skills that include being a barber and their business acumen that allows them to succeed. Remove one, I don't think they'd be as successful in starting a new business.
    - sandworm101 8y ago
      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.
kraig911 8y ago
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.
tibbon 8y ago
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.

28 points by NearAP 8y ago

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

neonate 8y ago
https://outline.com/PJ8Pxw https://outline.com/PJ8Pxw also works but doesn't have the photos.
- krastanov 8y ago
  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 8y ago
    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 8y ago
      The Are paywalls ok? FAQ at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html ?
      - tzs 8y ago
        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.

rcMgD2BwE72F 8y ago

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

tiredyam 8y ago
eh sounds like all these people’s lives are significantly better. Also, it sounds like we aren’t shipping oil all the way across the world to be refined into gas nearly as much if we are getting directly from Texas. I could even imagine this being co2 net positive
- rosser 8y ago
  Shale oil is well-known to have significantly higher CO₂ costs than conventional crude. At least it's (generally) EROEI-positive, finally (though much of that is a result of burning the lower grade stuff to fractionally distill off the higher grades, which materially contributes to the CO₂ problem...).
whatshisface 8y ago
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 8y ago
  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".

whatshisface 8y ago

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

the_economist 8y ago
Some estimates say that 90% of earth's oil is in shale rock.
- jandrese 8y ago
  Maybe, but we can't use it without killing the planet. We've already burned too much oil.
  - philwelch 8y ago
    Petroleum has many uses that don't involve burning it as fuel.
    - numtel 8y ago
      It's the extraction process that's the problem with shale, moreso than the burning of the gas.
    - whatshisface 8y ago
      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
    - bluGill 8y ago
      Yes and no. Yes there are a lot of uses, but they amount to a small amount of our current oil use. If I read https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=41&t=6 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=41&t=6 right 75% of crude oil is burned directly as fuel. edit: note that my numbers are different than the wiki below. I suspect that is because of a difference in what counts for what...

hiei 8y ago

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

hluska 8y ago
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.

sandworm101 8y ago

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 8y ago
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 8y ago
  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.
  - jasonlotito 8y ago
    Good point. But I wonder if they would be just as successful in another business. e.g. If the barber suddenly opened up a restaurant. The important point is, it's the fact that this person with this set of skills that include being a barber and their business acumen that allows them to succeed. Remove one, I don't think they'd be as successful in starting a new business.
  - sandworm101 8y ago
    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.

kraig911 8y ago

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.

tibbon 8y ago

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.