The utter stupidity of California in one project

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
FReepers, it's far beyond time to wrap up this FReep-a-thon. Lets do it today. Please chip in.

President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America
President Donald J. Trump's address to the United Nations on 09/19/2017.

Ramirez political cartoon: Trade War LARGE VERSION 03/12/2018: LINK LINK to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).
Garrison political cartoon: Gun Control Supporters LARGE VERSION 03/13/2018: LINK LINK (scroll down) to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).

FReepers, 87.788% of the Third Quarter FReep-a-thon goal has been met. Click above and pencil in your donation now. Please folks, lets end this FReepathon. Thank you!
...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $187.00 dollars to 88.00%

A MODEST PROPOSAL

Per Wikipedia, there are about 35,000 flights annually between San Francisco and LA.

Let's assume there are 125 people per flight (let's be conservative and assume those "shorter haul" flights have 30 rows of 5 seats, and we'll assume they're close to sold out...yea I know...probably not..please work with me).

A one-way flight to SFO from LAX costs about $100.

Therefore, the total revenue produced by this air traffic is 35,000 * 125 * $100 = $437.5 million.

At an estimated $77 billion cost, if we assume all that air traffic would switch to rail (a YUGE assumption), it would take 176 years to break even (assuming no interest/time value of money).

I am NO fan of public money for private consumption. But at this rate, it'd be more cost effective to PAY people to fly back and forth and ditch the project.

I'm just sayin'....

That will be interesting: being underground (though not particularly deep), what could they possibly complain about? Practically zero surface environmental impact, and not deep enough to disrupt water supplies.

And suing Musk will be entertaining, being someone for whom nothing but basic physics stands in his way. I could see him expending his entire personal fortune (not to be confused with his ventures’) just to shut down opposition.

[Fair disclosure: I have a Boring Co. hat.]

We voted for a free train that was to be paid for by bonds and private investors. When the investors didn’t come through, the judges took it over and forced it on us. We are paying for it with Cap and Trade money. Cap and Trade went after the oil refineries and they passed the costs onto the buyers.

Carbon dioxide was declared a greenhouse gas by our Supreme Court.

Congress has to step up and fire rogue judges. Judges forced school bussing on us in the 70s forcing us out of Los Angeles. When the illegals moved in California denied them free healthcare, public education and social services with Proposition 187.

Another rogue judge overturned Prop 187.

Judges cut off water to the south over a small fish. A fish that the forest service said wasn’t endangered.

Judges have told us we can’t detain illegal aliens.
If there are no orders to deport them, then they are legal and allowed welfare.
Judges struck down voter ID laws.
They stopped many states from cleaning their voter lists.
They said that stealing someone’s identification is legal if they didn’t know the ID was real.
They let prisoners out of jail early, saying the prisons were overcrowded.

Jeff Sessions says there are more than 600 federal judges.
He says “Under our Constitution, Congress writes our laws, the executive branch carries out our laws, and the judiciary applies those laws to cases and controversies.”

“These branches are coequal. The courts are not superior. On matters of policy, the branches that are directly accountable to the people must be given proper respect. That’s why it’s so alarming that judges are increasingly issuing nationwide injunctions — orders that block the entire federal government from enforcing an executive-branch policy or executing a statute. These injunctions block the government from carrying out a law — not just in one district or to one person, but anywhere in America.”

“Scholars have not found a single example of any judge issuing that type of extreme remedy in the first 175 years of the Republic.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/nationwide-injunctions-stop-elected-branches-enforcing-law/

I did the same calculation, with rougher numbers, but still got 200 years...so we’re real close.

And keep in mind that’s just the DEVELOPMENT COST. If you then add operations and maintenance...you get the idea.

Another way to look at it: If you simply stuck the $77B in the bank at 2% interest per year, you’d be able to buy those 5 million travelers their tickets, and still have $1B, per year, to show for it.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.