Posted on 07/07/2010 5:16:36 AM PDT by Willie Green
In his bathtub, Napoleon decided to sell the Louisiana Territory. His goal wasn't lofty; he just needed cash for his various wars. Fortunately, President Thomas Jefferson did have a lofty goal — a vision of a coast-to-coast America. So he made the Louisiana Purchase.
The bathtub tidbit comes from The Epic of America, historian James Truslow Adams' 1931 history of the United States.
"The character of our new acquisition to the west of 'the river' was not yet well known, but the exploring expeditions of Lewis and Clark in the Northwest and of Zebulon Pike in the Southwest had indicated that the prairies and plains were not of much use to settlers, and thus the western half of the country was to retain its reputation as the great American desert until after the Civil War," Adams wrote.
Today, the population center of the United States is well west of "the river." It continues to move farther west with each census report, as it has since 1790. Back then it took the Lewis and Clark expedition two years and much hazard to get to the Pacific Ocean from Pittsburgh.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Today, the greatest hardship on a trip to the Pacific Ocean is the lack of food or a seat that is a tad narrow, but that is hard to complain about when you have a cash bar, free snacks and flight attendants with a sense of humor.
Steve Penner, a friend in La Jolla, Calif., sums it up nicely: "I'll go anywhere Southwest goes. I won't go anywhere else." I share that preference. I fly other airlines only when absolutely necessary.
We have our reasons.
One is that Southwest is a Jeffersonian airline, not a Hamiltonian airline. It has one class of seat, and what you see is what you get. The airline doesn't mess with having a first class to separate the elite from what one BP executive would call "the small people." We're all going down this road together, and we're all going to get there at the same time.
Huh???
"Jeffersonian airline"???
Oh good grief..... someone hand me a barf bag....
SWA doesn’t go to MT, an oversight I’m sure.
It’s too bad that every young American can’t be forced into experiencing what pre-deregulation flying was like. Sure, there were microwaved frozen meals and more empty seats. But the ticket costs kept the average joe at home a lot more. I remember 1978; it was a turning point in American retail that made previous luxuries more affordable. The founder of SWA was a trailblazer who had an impact not much less than Lewis and Clark and more than Zebulon Pike.
What’s the problem Willie? Upset that Southwest is earning a profit free of federal subsidies while AMTRAK is STILL vowing to work towards breaking even (since 1981!)
Rail just doesn’t work for passengers on most routes in this country.
What’s the problem Willie?
I'm just stunned by the vast amount of pseudo-intellectual crap this stock market shill conjured up just to hype SW stock.
The very concept of a "Jeffersonian" vs "Hamiltonian" airline is ludicrous and bizarre.
IMHO, the author must be emotionally unbalanced.
This coming from a guy who shills money-losing tax-revenue-guzzling rail projects on a conservative website.
This coming from a guy who shills money-losing tax-revenue-guzzling rail projects on a conservative website.
I advocate long term investment in transportation infrastructure that will make America more productive and energy independent in the 21st Century.
If that offends libertarian corporate lobbyists, that's fine by me.
Their globalization agenda doesn't coincide with the best interests of average Middle Class American citizens anyway.
He is consistent in his political economy nuttiness.
So, in the words of Carl Spackler, he has that going for him., which is nice.
The day is yet young, and humor is needed - greene provides same.
Greene is good.
;-)
Trains don't work in this country, Willie - except along the dense NE corridor, and even then, transit systems require massive subsidies. Sinking money into the black hole of high speed rail will hardly make this country more competitive. Drilling for oil and gas in this country and giving tax breaks for energy conservation measures are a far better method.
If that offends libertarian corporate lobbyists, that's fine by me.
It's hardly libertarian to point out that transit and rail are black holes for tax dollars, and cannot work without high population density - is that what you want, Willie - to make everyone move out of the exurbs and into dense urban housing? Because liberals promote the same agenda as you do, and that is their unstated goal - they HATE suburbs and the freedoms that cars provide ordinary people.
Their globalization agenda doesn't coincide with the best interests of average Middle Class American citizens anyway.
I think the Middle Class is a better judge of their own interests than you are, Willie. That's the point of freedom - that over-weening types like you are told to stuff it.
Just you wait till we have High Speed Rail. We can zoom those empty seats at 200 mph. Don’t worry, it’s federal money.
barbra ann
And there was Jefferson's "forgotten expedition" -- Freeman and Custis -- which he sent to explore up the Red River (the boundary between his new acquisition and Spanish Texas. It was the only one of the major river expeditions with both an engineer/surveyor, and a professional naturalist, and they produced superior maps, geological reports, and inventories of the flora and fauna of the region.
Just you wait till we have High Speed Rail. We can zoom those empty seats at 200 mph. Don’t worry, it’s federal money. barbra ann
I'm not worried, Babs.
At 200 mph, those train seats won't be empty.
They'll be full of passengers who use to fly inefficient short-hop (100~600 miles) air routes.
SWA started off with three airplanes, which they flew in a continuous loop between Dallas Love Field, Houston Hobby, and Austin. The flight legs were each about an hour, and they fed more free drinks and snacks -- and gave more personal passenger attention -- in that hour than you got on most cross-country flights.
The "stews" were selected for the sort of beauty that now appears in the Cowboy Cheerleaders, and they wore spectacular hot pants uniforms. SWA called themselves "Somebody else up there who loves you" -- and they went out of their way to prove it on every flight.
Needless to say, we called SWA "the only way to go..."!
When Southwest started out, their approach wasn't that they were competing with other airlines. It was that they were competing with DRIVING within Texas - their pricing had to compete with the price of gas - and they had get you there faster than driving.
Southwest is hardly inefficient. They are a model of capitalist efficiency, something publicly-run train systems can't even begin to appraoch.
I fly Southwest between Philly and Denver a couple of times a year. The price has gone up from $99 one way to $144 one way, but it’s still cheaper than the gas to make the drive (even if gas were $2.50/gallon, it would cost $200 just for gas).
But they will be empty. Because the airlines are still cheaper and faster.
For short haul 100 miles or so, driving is far cheaper for the vats majority of travellers. For mid range 200-600 airlines are cheaper and faster on the vast vast vast majority of routes (eample: to go from Indianapolis to Omaha, or St Louis, or New Orleans or Detroit etc you must go through Chicago on rail, or you can fly direct on air).
Rail has all the disadvantages of air (need to drive to a terminal of some sort, need to rent a car on the other end, limited to someone else's schedule, trapped in small spaces with people you would not normally associate with in any other venue, expensive compared to driving) and none of the advantages (speed point to point for most city pairs).
Passenger rail was awonderful thing in it's day. But that day is long past and will not return.
Amtrak is still losing money. It is still promising to work toward breaking even, just as it was in 1981 when I first wrote about it. Yes, you read that right - 1981. That's government in action.
Fortunately, the Southwest Airlines glass - and all the great American enterprises like it - is still half-full. So raise your half-full glass to all our freedoms, to all that we do right - and to the freedom provided by Southwest to "move about" this great country.
This guy is pro-Southwestern and anti-rail.
John O-1
Willie Green-0
If rail is really as wonderful as Willie thinks it is then why are there tons of short haul intercity flights in the UK, France and the rest of Europe?
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.