JORDANEast

"With great potential comes great responsibility" - Abraham Lincoln

You'll be hard pressed to find anyone involved in the oil and gas industry who has anything nice to say about Obama, and for good reason.

As far as manual labor goes, working as roughneck or other member of a rig crew is about as good as you're gonna get in the US. The schedule of weeks on and off keeps expenses low and the pay is better than other manual labor jobs. And if you move up the ladder to other jobs on site that don't require formal education (driller, directional driller, etc) you can make 6 figures easily.

It might also be worth mentioning that the BOP stack is at the bottom of the marine riser on the sea floor for offshore rigs.