Re: Question about President's Social Security plan

From: Les Cargill (lNOcargill_at_cfl.Arr.com)
Date: 01/17/05 

Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 03:19:38 GMT

royls@telus.net wrote:
<snip>
>>Spend a zillion dollars on an aircraft
>>carrier and you provide some jobs while she is being built aftwer which she is
>>a drain on the economy returning nothing. Spend the same on a fleet of
>>freighters or ocean liners or cruise ships -- or Lear jets -- and you provide
>>jobs and income generation for the life of those vessels.
>
>
> Garbage. Freighters, OK, they are transporting goods. Cruise ships
> are productive capital for the entertainment/hospitality/tourism
> industry. But private jets are a pretty much pure consumption item, a
> status symbol that provides no more return on investment than typical
> military expenditures.
>

There exist people for whom private jets are more
sensible than flying coach. For some people, the
time spent waiting for flights can be a very real
sunk cost over and above their time. Blackberries
and cellphones help, but are not the whole story.

Wal-Mart uses 'em, and they have the very least
status symbol intensive corporate culture of any
company, ever. General aviation was an early and
significant part of that particular corporate
culture. If you'd driven in and around Bentonville,
you'd know why.

Timeshared corporate jets can be an improvement in
raw cost over business class, if they're properly
utilized and financed. There's an auction type
service for this on the Web. Prop planes, so
long as the range is right, are a downright bargain.

Rental and fuel on a Cessna 172 used to be less than
Southwest from Dallas to Houston, if you didn't have
to pay the pilot.

> -- Roy L 

--
Les Cargill