As the year comes to a close, gas prices in the U.S are at their lowest point of 2023. And not coincidentally, domestic oil production is at a record level. But it comes at a time when the U.S. is trying to wean itself off fossil fuels. William Brangham examined the big changes and the...
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Informative information for anyone willing to listen.
Now, personal story. About fifteen years ago my in-laws invited my family to dinner. They paid for dinner at a nice restaurant and then presented myself, my wife, and our three sons with season passes to Carowinds.
Turns out, decades ago my wife's grandfather bought a bunch of scrubland in Texas, in the Permian basin. He was mercifully ridiculed for it. But when fracking become more efficient, well suddenly that scrubland was worth some money, and they had leased some of it to an oil company to drill for oil. They got a good chunk of change upfront, and then they would get monthly royalty checks on any production. Those Carowinds passes, and the dinner, was their way of sharing after the first oil well was drilled.
Now, don't get me wrong. We all went to Carowinds several times that summer. But, I ain't much for charity. I come from a very wealthy family, and my wife's family was always on the verge of poverty. I made it very clear, I didn't need, nor want, their oil well money.
My wife, on the other hand, she laps it up. And honestly, it is a damn problem. Last I heard, and that was more than a year ago because I really don't want to know, there were 18 producing wells. Royalty checks are hitting the mailbox at least twice a week.
I don't know, maybe it is just me, maybe it is how I was raised. Mom was born into wealth, Dad lived in poverty his entire life. In the end, Dad owned all of Mom's family's wealth, and left a legacy that will last for generations. I don't get it, these people are spending the money as fast as it comes in, on stupid shit.
The house they live in, it is in a flood zone, and not the best neighborhood, Crime infested, pretty much a step above the slums. The damn cars parked in the driveway are worth more than the home. WTF?
And yeah, I am still a little pissed. The entire week of Christmas, right up to Christmas eve, I sat here alone as my wife whooped it up in Nashville with her parents, staying at "The Bobby". WTF? And hell, that is just the tip of the iceberg. There have been weeks this past year that my wife, and her "Mom" went to three or four concerts in a single week. Traveling all over, hotel rooms, fine dining, I mean it is enough to make someone sick.
These people are generating income that can leverage an entire generation to a better future, instead, they are pissing it away. I mean the old saw, a poor person wins the lottery, within a few years, they are poor once again, really rings true here.
If they had any sense, they would send all those royalty checks to my oldest son. He isn't 30 yet, and he is worth seven figures. I have to set my Mom up with an investment account with Charles Swab tomorrow. My brother flipped out, why do you need to do that he asked. My response was simple, "she will be alright if she follows my middle son's strategy". He has done well, and when I asked him what his strategy was, he was honest, "I just do what my older brother tells me to do".
