In May of 2011 I came to Dickinson, North Dakota to work in the oil field, and I stayed for about eight months.  In April of 2012, I went to work in the oil field in Texas, and I was in Texas for about ten months.

I have written about two hundred blog posts describing what living in Dickinson, North Dakota was like during the oil boom: extremely high housing prices, housing prices increasing by 400% to 500%, people living in their cars, extremely cold weather in the winter, police trying to stop everyone, shortage of women, lack of attractive women, lack of anything to do, local people being hostile, unfriendly, not cooperative, unhelpful, hateful, mean, and mistreating educated people in every way possible.

In Texas there was not really a shortage of housing.  Near the oil fields, they made trailer parks where they needed trailer parks.  In the oil field where I worked, the housing prices were increased by 100% to 150%.  Near the oil field, I lived in a three bedroom, one bathroom new manufactured home in a very nice RV park that rented for $1,800 per month, (In Dickinson, North Dakota this same manufactured home would have had rent of $3,000 per month.)  In the large cities that were involved in the oil industry like Dallas and Houston, housing was very affordable.  I lived in a three bedroom, two bathroom, two car garage house, with a big yard, in a nice neighborhood outside of Dallas, and the house rent was $1,000 per month, (In Dickinson, North Dakota this same house would have had rent of $3,500 per month.)

There was a shortage of women in the oil field areas of Texas, however the women that were there did like oil field worker men very much, unlike Dickinson, North Dakota.  Also, all the oil field workers that I knew in Texas would sometimes go away for the weekend to San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, or Mexico where they would have a good time, and the women all liked the oil field worker men very much, unlike North Dakota.  In Texas, most people valued education, and I was treated with much more respect in the oil field and everywhere else in Texas when they knew I was an engineer, unlike North Dakota.

North Dakota got down to -20 degrees Fahrenheit in Winter.  Texas got up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in Summer.  The police tried to follow, sneak up on, and stop all the oil field workers in North Dakota.  The police did the same thing in Texas.  I would much rather go to jail or prison in North Dakota, than in Texas.

It was harder to get an oil field job in Texas, because there are over 25 million people in Texas, and many people want to work in the oil field in Texas.  It was much easier to get an oil field job in North Dakota, because there are less than 1 million people in North Dakota, and there was a shortage of oil field workers.  This I believe, is the reason why you often see Texas license plates on vehicles in North Dakota, it had been much much easier to get an oil field job in North Dakota than in Texas.

I would rather live in North Dakota than in Texas, because I don’t like large cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.  Large cities bring out the worst in people, pushy aggressive uncaring behavior.  And, in the large cities, the wealthy people live so much better than the lower middle class and poor people, that this causes a great deal of discontentment.  Partly because of the wealthy people living so much better than the lower middle class and poor people in Texas, I have never seen so much bragging, boasting, showing off, fakery, and pretending to be something you are not, than I have in Texas, which is very sickening and repulsive to me.

Though there is a lack of things to do in North Dakota, a shortage of women, a lack of attractive women, the local people are hostile, unfriendly, not helpful, uncooperative, and they have hatred for educated people, the worst thing about Dickinson was the absurd greed of the property owners, property developers, and real estate agents in trying to take almost all of people’s money for housing.  They did not attempt to do this in Texas.  This is one reason why the population of Texas is over 25 million, and the population of North Dakota is less than 1 million.  North Dakota drives people away.