I was just poking at y’all. But those are good questions DD.

Regarding fossil fuels and Oklahoma’s reliance on them for its economy, yes we do emply a lot of people in all aspects oil industry. we never talk though about the downside of that reliance. I’ve lived through so many booms and busts in the Oklahoma economy I couldn’t count them. They’re typically driven by the price of a barrel of crude oil. Right now the pipelines and new drilling and political issues of the day don’t have squat to do with energy jobs or the price of oil in my state. What is driving the bust in Oklahoma’s state economy rightnow is worldwide demand for oil has dropped by at least ten percent over the past year. Much of that decline is because of Covid and that isn’t expected to change in the coming year. 10% is devastating in the oil industry. No offence, but if we continue to pour investments into fossil fuels Oklahoma is going to end up like Kentucky and the coal business, where we’ll just end up with the shaft. Just an opinion, but I’d rather see Oklahoma invest in education and tech jobs with programs like Hombre mentioned yesterday, than build another 50 oiltank farms out in Cushing just to perpetuate an industrythat’s dead and so we can hang onto what oilpatch jobs are left in 20 years.
The $15 dollar an hour minimum won’t drive small businesses out of business. Put more money in the pockets of workers and they will spend it, at small businesses. People say the same shit every time its raised. It was a buck sixty five an hour when I started working at minimum wage jobs at 16. How many times has it gone up since and did that kill small business? That model is just wrong. Again, IMO.

On economic/political matters just watch how often government picks who wins and who loses economically. Keep track and you’ll see who the real free market capitalists are. Socialism, if you care to look up the definition, is just basically a planned economy where the government does just that. And protectionism of a particular industry by government creates these scenes where we’re stuck with it because its too painful to let go of. Hence: fossil fuels.

BKb