I feel bad for these folks (I myself grew up in South Bend, Ind., right next door to Elkhart), but, I do have to say that to some extent, this is just a consequ

I feel bad for these folks (I myself grew up in South Bend, Ind., right next door to Elkhart), but, I do have to say that to some extent, this is just a consequence of tying your career and your fate to a frivolous recreational fad that is highly dependent on ultra, ultra-cheap and plentiful energy as an input, and then getting yourself into a highly leveraged financial position on top of it. The moment that stops being the case, that economic sector stops being. You just have to either 1) get the skill set and make a career in something that seems to be durable and sustainable and for which there is always a certain level of demand, or 2) take the appropriate risk-mitigation measures if you want to go work in something more ephemeral. No, nothing lasts forever, and in capitalism, everything changes. But some things clearly change more than others, and the change is of a higher magnitude. Basing your family's fate around a pure-recreational industry is really no better than playing games as a businessperson with pointless non-value-added risk-free regulatory arbitrage opportunities (of which there is MUCH in telecom) or spreads that arise in various loopholes. That's just not a good way to ensure that there will be a tomorrow.