This Is Not Rocket Science -- America Has Wealth Beyond Dreams -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

A big "thank you"to Greg for sending me this link overnight. Greg appears to be "occupying" the night news desk.  I think back to Hunter S. Thompson when he referred to himself as Rolling Stone's Foreign Correspondent. But I digress.

From the American Thinker, which I sometimes think is an oxymoron akin to military intelligence, but I digress, again:

The good news is that America has wealth beyond dreams that can be realized in the next decade, producing a million new jobs.  According to a recent Congressional report, the United States' combined recoverable natural gas, oil and coal endowment is the largest on Earth. 

Our resources are larger than Saudi Arabia, China and Canada, combined. Our known resources can meet the country's need for oil and gas for the rest of the century.  That's not including shale oil, the true energy future.  If we used our own oil, we could replace imported oil from the Persian Gulf for the next fifty years. By then cars will probably be running on something else.

Now turn your eyes to where real jobs are being created.

States that have grown jobs in the last decade are states using their energy resources, such as North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Texas, and Alaska. Texas has created 40% of the jobs in America since 2009, with half a million jobs directly in the energy sector.  These are good jobs.  A roughneck with a high school diploma can earn $100,000 a year in Wyoming's Jonah Fields.  An entry level job on an oil rig pays $70K.

The average pay in the oil patch in North Dakota is $106,000, I am told. New hires at McDonald's in Williston can earn upwards of $50,000 if they so choose (others have done the math; not me; but I accept it).