Japanese Story

This story has nothing to do with the Bakken, but it has everything to do with North Dakota before the boom. The dots are not hard to connect (the Japanese story at the link and North Dakota before the boom).

Here's the Japanese story:

The Japanese now have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, and at the same time, one of the highest longevity rates. As a result, the population is dropping rapidly, and becoming increasingly weighted toward older people. After peaking seven years ago, at 128 million, Japan's population has been falling — and is on a path to decline by about a million people a year. By 2060, the government estimates, there will be just 87 million people in Japan; nearly half of them will be over 65. Without a dramatic change in either the birthrate or its restrictive immigration policies, Japan simply won't have enough workers to support its retirees, and will enter a demographic death spiral. Yet the babies aren't coming.

The article had another story line which I won't go into.

The point is that before the boom, North Dakota was perceived as dying by some (even by North Dakotans themselves). Except for three or four or five or six cities most other North Dakota towns were continuing to decline in population. By North Dakota standards Grand Forks was a big city and perhaps not a dying city but it certainly was not a growing city in the "big" sense of the word. And after Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, there was not much in terms of urban energy in North Dakota.

The oil boom has brought its problems, but in reality, the problems are only affecting five or six or seven or eight counties and only five or six or seven or eight "towns." The vast majority of North Dakota is not affected at all in any negative way. In fact, if the Bakken is affecting the rest of North Dakota, the Bakken is affecting the rest of North Dakota only in a positive way. [Indeed, the Bakken is also affecting the entire midwest region in a positive way. Just ask Warren Buffett and his thousands of investors.]

When out-of-state reporters want to focus on the bad things associated with the Bakken, they only have three or four or five or six towns to choose from: they don't visit the dozens of other towns and cities in North Dakota that are doing very, very well. When out-of-state reporters want to focus on the "bad road" situation they only have a small percentage of roads to complain about; 90% of North Dakota roads are in fine shape. In fact, the major roads in the Bakken are in very good shape based on my trip there just a couple of months ago. It's the back roads that the roughnecks and the occasional farmers have to put up with. Yes, occasional farmer: farms and ranches are huge in North Dakota.

Read the Japanese story at the link. It's quite a story.

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Japanese Story

By the way, there is a movie called Japanese Story. It's an old movie now. It was released in 2003. My half-Japanese wife and I stumbled across it some years ago while browsing DVD rentals. It turned out to be an incredible movie. Toni Collette is gorgeous in her own way. For real movie buffs I can heartily recommend it.

The trailer:

Japanese Story, with Tony Collette