I was reading a neighborhood Facebook group the other day. A woman started spouting off about the “homelessness” in the Bakken oil fields, by way of hinting “maybe those people out there need much less of all that oil and exploration and stuff”.
And I thought – “Wow. All those well-meaning Twin Citians – the media, the political establishment and just regular Metro-area folks – sure are concerned about the corrupting effects of jobs, prosperity, economic diversification and even a little wealth out there in the Badlands, aren’t they?
Like they should all go back to being season-to-season ranchers and farmers out in the middle of nowhere. And speak when spoken to.
And then it occurred to me – that’s what it’s always like up in the Iron Range – only they never actually get to dig their mines, unlike North Dakota. My native state actually managed to get something done – probably before the Strib and MPR knew what “Bakken” meant – before the suffocating hand of “benevolent, patronizing good will from their betters” descended upon them.
Lucky ND!
I haven’t seen numbers, but presume that ND oil has also been extremely beneficial to the Minnesota economy. I know there are a lot of Minnesota companies contracting in the oil fields, as well as Minnesotans going there to work while retaining Minnesota residency. And finally, there are a lot of Minnesotans with ND roots getting lease payments and royalty checks (Gotta go cash mine now).
The Williston area is booming and thriving almost beyond belief (one look at a satellite image demonstrates that), the Iron Range is floundering in the mire. But hey all those rangers can come down to the Metro and hang out in any number of squeaky new stadiums their paying for.
If you lived in Minnesota in the 1970s, you know just how hard the environmentalists in the Twin Cities worked to keep any new industry from replacing iron mining.
The best thing North Dakota has going for it is that it isn’t subject to the MN legislature, the StarTribune or the MN urban elite. Meanwhile it can take all the workers, contractors, ware-housers, truck drivers, mechanics, builders, teachers et al that Minnesota sends them.
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