Letting Detroit Burn

Just finished Detroit: An American Autopsy. About the quickest I've ever flown through a book (I'm not the best of readers). Charlie LeDuff the author isn't Steinbeck, but I appreciate how he follows a similar intent - kind of a, it's the system's fault so no one person had control to stop it, but everyone has the responsibility to be responsible. Steinbeck would be down with that.

My last girlfriend opened me up to some solid perspective. There was an intriguing oblivity to be exposed to she brought to the relationship. Ideas like how Robert Moses was good for America, and for blatantly selfish reasons. The discrepancies were bloated - Moses essentially wanted to wall black people into the cities and make it really easy for whites to drive to the cities without actually living among them. Detroit was nothing more than niggers shooting niggers. American society can burn as long as the rich can stay rich. But at the same token, being poor was immoral and if you had a shit position in life you probably deserved it. I'm sure there's a nexus of selfishness, indifference, and ignorance that leads people to believe in the existing power structures while also not understanding why people don't just better their socioeconomic class. It's why I think more conservatives should be forced to take behavioral economics courses.

She used to jokingly refer to Red Lobster as Black Lobster, because only black people would be poor enough to want to eat there. This was regularly thrown in my face with the knowledge my parents wouldn't have been able to afford eating there when I was little. I turned into a bad person during that time; I think I'm getting better.

Rail: More Dishonest Arguments

Funding for Amtrak is getting interesting as conservative state officials have been taking a stand and rejecting federal funding for rail infrastructure projects. Governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, and now Florida have all rebuked the DOT by saying the state match required to accept the grants isn’t worth the cost. All three follow Democratic predecessors that originally accepted the planned transfers to their states. This is creating some delicious drama as two New York state legislators (a Dem AND a Republican) recently wrote a letter to (DOT Director) Ray LaHood requesting the money other states turned down, and the Governor of Florida is actually being sued by his legislative counterparts for refusing the federal project (also by a Dem/GOP combo).

However, this blog soars above political gossip. I serve merely to examine the economics of an idea. (Please ignore that my most common tag is politics.) And what myth am I here to dispel today? The idea that Amtrak should be shuttered because it’s not self-sustaining.

Assuming any mode of transportation should pay for itself is one thing, but we as a society refuse to apply this principle universally. The airline industry has become a public good due to heavy federal subsidization, and the government spends a few hundred billion dollars every year to provide the cheapest oil in your car and paved roads for public use. Your commute is not a self-sustaining entity – it is subsidized by millionaires paying taxes. In short: the airline industry isn’t self-sustaining. Commute by car isn’t self-sustaining. The idea that rail transportation should be is a blatant double-standard.

Once we acknowledge the fallacy offered above, we must still address the economic efficiency of rail versus roads. From an environmental standpoint, rail typically wins (and incurs nice health externalities in the process – saving us money on healthcare). But how well does it foster business? Roads facilitate the transportation of goods that allows our economy to grow. So does rail. They also allow travel for business and networking. Ditto for rail. The interstate provides opportunity for simple travel and leisure. Rail also gins the vacation industry.

End game: Rail and roads are kinda substitutes, with different people and businesses assuming preferences for one or the other. They both cost more than users pay for them. We justify federal welfare for each because we value connected communities and believe facilitating travel increases economic growth. I can demonstrate why our approaches to both should be changed, but that's a conversation for another day. What's important is recognizing the notion that we should stop funding one because it doesn’t support itself while ignoring the other’s failings is a rather dishonest starting point.

An Unfit Governor

Chris Christie has demonstrated during this moment of crisis that he is unfit to be serve as Governor of New Jersey. During last weekend's devastating snowstorm that stranded me in Kansas for two days, parts of New Jersey got 32 inches of snow in 24 hours. This is roughly the equivalent of Antartica being dumped on your house. Twice. However, Christie was busy embarking on a 'Disney World Vacation,' and failed to return from Disney World to oversee the response.

Christie's failure to return during an emergency, particularly when given a week's notice to prepare for returning, has been described as a deriliction of duty. I fear this bombastic talk takes our eyes off the ball. Here's the ball: what lunatic would visit Disney World during Christmas? I'd rather sit around the hotel and have the busboy drum my forehead with a pin hammer than leave my room.

And here's the craziest part: Christie actually had an opportunity to escape! Many a man has been drug into the hell that is Disney because his wife and kids wouldn't stop whining about how it would be a fun opportunity to spend time together because he simply couldn't negotiate a way out. Christie, on the other hand, has the greatest excuse ever: 'sorry hon, but Antartica just got dumped on New Jersey (twice). Gotta go rescue the state. I'll try to get back as soon as possible, but this looks like one sticky wicket of a situation. So if the State of New Jersey needs me longer than anticipated, you navigate the teeming crowds of screaming, vomit-covered children without me.' And just like that, Christie would be a free man.

The conclusion here is obvious: Chris Christie is the most incompetent man in the face of emergency I've ever read about. Not because of his abscense - the Secretary of Transportation and Adjucant General should be the primary responders to snowstorms, even if the Governor is available. Additionally, I don't know if the state would be any more well off if Christie had returned. However, his refusal to exploit the most opportune excuse to escape Gehenna exposes him as unfit to continue serving as Governor; even in a state as grisly as Jersey.

Reflections From a 20-Hour Layover

Remember when Expedia.com offered the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions of your flight with some sort of e-carbon credit? For about $15 you could negate the CO2 from your flight by paying for like new trees or something. I'm sure they simply calculated the average fuel usage for a trip of XX miles, and multiplied by the carbon intensity of the fuel used for the flight. What I'd love to be a part of is looking at the real footprint of a plane ticket (while being exempted from having to partake in the necessary regressions).

The difference b/t what I want to do, what's probably done: that plane is flying with or without you - it's not like a car's carbon footprint which is entirely dependent on your driving habits. You'd actually have to calculate the likelihood that your ticket creates a tipping point, wherein a bigger plane is needed to transport everyone. Multiply that probability by the additional intensity of a larger plane, and you've got the carbon footprint of a plane ticket.

I don't know how this would work with the standby system, but it probably further diminishes the probability of you being of consequence. Additionally, I'm making a strong assumption that airlines react to demand by allocating larger or smaller planes to each trip. i really have no idea if this is the case, as the capacity to be responsive would take on an additional burden (i.e. having to store additional planes in the hanger). Predictive modeling would ballpark it pretty well, which I'm sure already occurs, but I'd like to know the extent. Then I could extort carbon offset companies by demonstrating how much the market signal of a single ticket really is, the carbon cost it really incurs, and get paid not to tell anyone else.

Willing to go in 50/50 with someone possessing in-depth knowledge and personnel access in the airline industry. Immediate proceeds will go towards paying for the ticket I just purchased, as I missed my plane and am sitting in the airport waiting for a second flight I definitely didn't budget for.