The other day, my cousin sent me an article about the boom town of Williston, N.D.  Yes, North Dakota.  Thousands of men have arrived, without their families, to work for oil companies.  And, apparently, they’re getting paid very big bucks.

As a result, two strip joints, Whispers and Heartbreakers, are doing phenomenal business but the competition amongst the dancers is stiff.  They’re applying from all over the world and the owner of Whispers has been inundated with applications.

Before this influx of well-paid men, strippers might’ve earned $200 a night – now they’re pulling in $2,000 a night.  One of the bartenders, who used to make $50 in tips, now makes about $200 a night.

My cousin’s comment about the article was that Williston will soon be producing more millionaires for Obama to tax.  In response, I told him they’ll have to actually start declaring all this income before he can dip into their pockets.  But that’s not the point of my story.

What’s interesting about this story is the primitive reaction of men with wallets full of money and, I’ll be kind, pretty girls.

Instead of thinking, “ok, I’ve got a wife and a couple of children back home that will need to go to college so I really need to step back and start looking to the future because this job isn’t going to last forever,” they’re primal instincts have kicked in, spending, I’m guessing, enormous amounts of cash in these strip joints, and throwing away even more the moment some stripper glances in their direction.

I remember listening to some interviews with working strippers at Scores in NYC some years ago and what struck me at the time was the disdain these gals had for the men who couldn’t give away their money fast enough.  As part of their nightly ritual, the girls would get together after the club closed and rag on the guys who were the most pathetic or who had given them the most money.  Most of the gals in the interview didn’t even like men!

So here you have all these guys in North Dakota, and in every other strip club in the world, thinking these girls are dancing just for them, have eyes only for them, and these girls are probably thinking about when their next pedicure is scheduled or laughing on the inside about how ridiculous this guy looks.  And let’s not forget how many of these gals are either hooked on drugs or alcohol.  I recall a mother in one of my cases years ago who was a stripper and also an alcoholic who told an evaluator, “Do you think I could take off my clothes the way I do if I were sober?”

Personally, I’ve never bought into the mantra so many “dancers” chant, “I’m saving for college.” I would really like to hear from any stripper who actually saved for college, earned a degree and is a success.  The other response I easily dismiss is “why should I work for minimum wage when I can make this kind of money?”  Uh, lady, did you ever hear of the concept “self-respect?”  I’ve known quite a few widows in my life who were left with very little money and a few children and not one of them went to work as a stripper.  They took legitimate jobs, at whatever salary they could get, to support their families and raise their children with dignity.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not man-bashing.  I love men.  I’d say the same thing about women who spend money on shoes and clothing when their wallets are flush without thinking if they have enough money to pay the rent in two weeks.

I, on the other hand, am the complete opposite – to the extreme.  I have a couple of hundred dollars in my Amazon account for Kindle purchases, thanks to my generous friends and family.  I stopped buying books years ago because I ran out of space in my house for more bookcases, so I get just about all my books from the library.  Now that I have a Kindle, I have to think about a particular book for about three days, debating whether to buy it or get it from the library, before I’ll spend the few bucks a download costs even though I’ve got plenty of money stashed away in gift cards.  But, hey, that’s just me.

But these guys in North Dakota, who are operating on animal instinct for instant gratification, are just not thinking with the brain on the top of their shoulders or worrying about what the future will hold.

Their behavior reminds me of many liberals who say they want free medical care, disability insurance, unlimited unemployment insurance, welfare, and lots of free money from the government, and they want it NOW.  Never once, for even a moment, thinking about the future, never figuring out how the government is going to pay for all this free stuff.

I don’t get it, but if you do, God bless you.