Double your salary in the middle of nowhere, North Dakota

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Believe it or not, a place exists where companies are hiring like crazy, and you can make $15 an hour serving tacos, $25 an hour waiting tables and $80,000 a year driving trucks.

Vickie McMullen and her husband were living in one of the poorest cities in North Carolina, and they knew they needed to move to dig themselves out of debt. When they looked online earlier this year and saw the number of high-paying job opportunities in Williston, North Dakota -- less than 50 miles from Watford -- they knew it was the place to jumpstart their lives.

McMullen now works as a nanny in exchange for housing. Her husband, who worked on behavior management programs for a school system in North Carolina where he took home about $1,600 a month, found a job working in the oilfields where he makes that same amount of money in one week -- adding up to an annual salary of about $77,000.

"We want to be debt-free, so we came here to play catch-up," said McMullen. "But when I came here, I thought I was on Mars. It's just so crazy that the rest of the country has no jobs, and here's this one place that doesn't have enough people to fill all the jobs."

With oil companies paying top dollar to the new onslaught of workers they need -- doling out average salaries of $70,000, and more than $100,000 including over-time -- other local businesses are boosting their pay to compete.

Entry level jobs everywhere from restaurants and grocery stores to convenience stores and local banks pay a minimum of $12 per hour, according to the McKenzie County Job Development Authority. Truck drivers make an average of $70,000 to $80,000 a year.

Taco John's, a Western fast-food chain, has increased its pay from $8.50 an hour to $15 an hour in Williston to hold on to its workers during its busiest shifts. It's also trying to keep pace with competitors, including the Subway and Hardee's down the street, said general manager Christie Smith. The Taco John's currently has more than 15 open positions and Smith said she has only turned down one applicant this year, "because he just looked too scruffy."

If a Taco John's employee refers a friend for a job, and that friend is hired and works there at least six weeks, the employee is given a $100 bonus, and the new employee gets $150.

The pay bump was even bigger for Nathan Pittman, who was thinking about retiring from the trucking company he owned in Indiana, but put his plans on hold when he heard about the boom.

Pittman quickly landed at a trucking company in Watford making $20 an hour with "a lot" of overtime. In all, his salary more than doubled to about $2,225 a week in Watford.
"You can make at least a thousand dollars a week more here than anywhere else in the country," he said.

The only problem at the moment appears to be housing. They need more

^^ Tesla's dead .

We ask a lot of our cars – heat me, cool me, be silent, be comfy, be exciting and, increasingly, propel me without costly and polluting gasoline. It’s the latter request that confounds, since batteries, the most obvious replacements for gas, are heavy and have limited energy storage.

But what if the energy storage burden was shifted from our overworked cars to the road?

Researchers at the Energy Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University are working on just such a solution, called electrified roads.

HaloIPT, a U.K.-based start-up that develops inductive power transfer (IPT) systems for wirelessly charging electric vehicles (EVs), recently formed a strategic partnership with Drayson Racing Technologies to test the technology on the track. They will also collaborate on the development of electric drivetrain packages to replace the racecar’s internal-combustion engine

^

Edison won that battle a long time ago, and companies/industries will be damned if they lose power to something that would marginalize them.

Edit: The "war" is still TBD, but for now, Edison is still the winner.

^

Edison won that battle a long time ago, and companies/industries will be damned if they lose power to something that would marginalize them.

Edit: The "war" is still TBD, but for now, Edison is still the winner.

What war are you talking about? The "war of currents" is certainly over, and Tesla's AC is the indisputable winner.

Can you imagine a D.C. infrastructure?

What war are you talking about? The "war of currents" is certainly over, and Tesla's AC is the indisputable winner.

We better start implementing real change soon, otherwise Asians will start importing American labor to sweep their sidewalks and form up squeegee squads.

NYC had places running DC up through the late 80s (with the insanely dangerous converter boxes).

Current was only one part of the war. Tesla was marginalized (and he self marginalized himself due to his social awkwardness and behaviors) and people have yet to decipher TONS of his notes. For all we know, he had many other things eons ahead of Edison, but since Edison was the business man with power, his plans were pushed down on everyone (infrastructure, delivery, etc.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High...ct_current

I know DC is laughable... oh wait...

Tesla was marginalized (and he self marginalized himself due to his social awkwardness and behaviors)

and people have yet to decipher TONS of his notes. For all we know, he had many other things eons ahead of Edison, but since Edison was the business man with power, his plans were pushed down on everyone (infrastructure, delivery, etc.).

South Korea and Taiwan get it cheap as it's easier to develop given a smaller scale to roll out (both testing and full roll out) with also more business and R&D friendly policies.