Oil

The citizens of North Dakota are under attack. Thousands of oil exploiters have descended on small farming towns. There are suddenly two hundred oil wells where there was once scrub and farmland. What's the deal? Well, speculative oil leases, bought cheaply since 2005, will expire if there is no fracking of the oil from shale on the leased properties. The leases, bought for $100 acre, will soon be worth $1500 an acre if taken from one exploiter and offered on the market to others.

No planning was done for infrastructure to accommodate thousands of new workers and thousands of huge trucks. The average citizen, used to a humble and quiet life, has been hit by a tsunami of noise, filth and pollution. Water systems and sewer systems are overloaded. Local governments are reeling, while the state government sucks up the revenues from the oil boom.

This is the true face of what some would call the Free Market. A limited number of investors make fortunes. The lives of tens of thousands are decimated overnight. The overall effect is to allow Americans to deny climate change and the detrimental effects of the petrochemical industry on the planet's future. Cheap gasoline and plastics to feed addiction to cars and cheap consumer goods.

This phenomenon clearly shows where the priorities of those in the top 1% lie. They have manipulated deregulation and divided the populace by funding deceptive political ads for their minions. They have conquered for now. But there will be no escape from the consequences for them and their children over the generations to come.