When those great paying jobs (75k or better is not uncommon in this industry) go away, so does the money derived from mostly non-government sources. This leads to an absence of private money being replaced with tax/public money for things like unemployment benefits and entitlement programs many of the former employees will move to. As a result, the cheap gas prices may leave more money in some people's pockets but that will be short lived as they see a general slow down in the economy.
The people on subsidized living will benefit the most as they see a cut in expenditures for every day living cost but the private sector will suffer more as the many tens of thousand of jobs related to energy are no longer there to buy homes, cars, electronics and so on. That will have a ripple effect on other private businesses.
In other words, I see a lot of our economy driven by the private sector moving to more government driven sector. I'm writing this on my phone so it's probably not as well said as I'd like.
” that will be short lived as they see a general slow down in the economy”
Yes the slowdown in the economy that caused the price drop in oil is the problem and will be exacerbated by the transfer of oil capital into consumer spending (because of the lower fuel price). The government redistribution of wealth to consumer spending is now aggravated by a capitalist redistribution of wealth into consumer spending. Which will cause less investment and thus more government support of consumer spending.
(Not stated anywhere near as well as i’d like!)
Of course if the government would reduce it’s redistribution then the price drop could be beneficial.
But that won’t happen.
I don’t see the drop in oil prices creating a great growth in the government side from this. Some sectors will grow as others shrink. In some locations one will be significantly larger than the other. Other areas will be reversed.
My point is, just in the past during drops in gasoline price, an overall economic boom is unlikely.
More often, the price drop is a symptom of falling demand from economies already shrinking. That is only a partial cause this time. North American supply also helped drive prices down.
But the drop in the industry will impact the country. We are the third largest oil producer because it is a large part of our economy.