In Harrison County, Ohio, drilling company worker Rick Lucente sums up all that is wrong with the mainstream media's narrative(puppeting even The Fed's great thinkers) about what great news low oil prices are… while his monthly gas bill for his Chevy pickup truck has dropped, he admonishes, “That's not going to replace a paycheck… and I don't know why this is happening.”

As The Wall Street Journal reports,

The collapse of oil prices in the past six months is threatening to end a recent industrial revival in manufacturing centers like this town of 64,000 people on the banks of Lake Erie.

The U.S. shale-drilling boom lifted Midwest manufacturing economies, enriched property owners with mineral rights and even brought back the fat blue-collar paychecks that once were harder to find.

But as drilling and exploration for new oil and gas slow with the drop in energy prices, cutbacks at heavy-industry companies are cropping up.

As the town's mayor explains…

The impact of the energy industry here is so widespread that for some workers in Lorain, oil prices affect almost every facet of their lives, from home values to roads to jobs.

“We thought this time the going was going to be good for a while,” said Chase Ritenauer, the town's 30-year-old mayor. “But now Lorain is going to feel the impact of the global economy.”

As we reported yesterday, workers are being laid off and plants shut down…

“Yeah, I'm worried. You'd have to drive 50 miles to find another job like this one,” said Dana Smith, a 43-year-old father of four and technician at the U.S. Steel plant. “I'll survive. I always do, but this will be hard.”

Mr. Smith, who said he makes $20 an hour, joined the mill 18 months ago, which could make him “probably be one of the first ones to go.”