They’re called “Piggy Banks” for a Reason

Excuse my logic and my provinciality but I feel us New Jerseyans are being duped and exploited by both the Port Authority of New York andNew Jersey as well as byNew York City in general. Just for starters notice that it is called Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New York getting top billing in this two-party act.

People of my generation will certainly recall their parents or grandparents telling them that when the George Washington Bridge as well as the Lincoln Tunnel were built, the public was promised that once the funding had been paid off (presumably within 50 years of completion) these facilities would become free to everyone.  It’s no newsflash that this hasn’t happened.

The GW Bridge was completed in 1931 and the LincolnTunnel (2^nd tube included) sometime in the early 1940s. So 50 years has come and passed and still we are paying higher and higher tolls. 

Same Bridge, Different Fare

To put things in perspective let’s look at some numbers.  The two tubes of the Lincoln Tunnel cost approximately $160 million to build. The GW Bridge cost approximately $75 million to build.  According to statistics culled from Wikipedia approximately 106 million vehicles ravel the GWB per year.  So if you divide that figure in half (The amount of vehicles crossing into the city and paying the toll) you get 53 million vehicles.  53 million times $12 equals $636 million for just one year.  Are you getting the picture?  Current one year toll receipts are nine times what the bridge cost!  They’ve been collecting hundreds of millions each year for decades and still want more.

The numbers are not as stark but still eye opening for the Lincoln Tunnel.   Approximately 22 million tolls are collected per year according to Wikipedia’s stats. 22 million times $12 equals $264 million.  Once again, one year of tolls pays what the total cost of the tunnels was and then some.

Now mind you, I don’t propose abolishing tolls all together although the astronomical amounts of money that have been collected over the years would certainly justify such an action.  Obviously it does cost money to run these facilities.  However, the Port Authority and the powers that be are forever crying poor and raising the tolls when in fact the figures just cited above would certainly prove them liars. 

Furthermore, there’s a certain psychology that permeates this whole fiasco.  As a New Jerseyan, I find it interesting that you only pay the toll when going intoNew York City.  It’s as if New York City is some Nirvana like kingdom and Jerseyans are not worthy of passing through its gates unless we pay for the privilege. 

Trust me, there is a dynamic here at work.  Consider the proposed train tunnel that was to connect New Jersey to Manhattan that Governor Chris Christie scuttled Last October. I recall reading certain news accounts that some New Yorkers felt New Jerseyand the Federal Government alone should have paid for this huge undertaking, the rationale being that New York City already provides us Jerseyans with jobs so this would be our dues to pay.  It’s as if New York City is this divine benefactor and that all the giving is one way.

Need I remind New Yorkers that Jerseyans flock to their Broadway plays, concerts, sporting events, restaurants, tourist attractions and airports by the millions, thus creating countless jobs for New Yorkers as well?

I wonder how New Yorkers would feel if one day New Jersey as it always has, kept charging them for the use of our countless beaches and state parks that they so love to frequent while allowing Jersey people to use them for free?  Or if we began charging only New Yorkers for parking at our famous shopping malls?

Just a thought.

PS.  A website called Shunpikers.com offers an extremely illuminating analysis of what happens to all the toll money that is collected as well as routes one can take in and around this area to avoid those nasty tolls.

 

Copyright 2011; Greg S.  

No Nukes Are Good Nukes

Excuse my logic, but why in God’s name does the United States and Russia each need to have in their possession some 16,000 nuclear warheads apiece? To be quite blunt, the detonation of just let’s say a mere 5 percent of that amount (800 warheads by each country) if spread globally and strategically would destroy most, or all, of the human race.  So why do we each need 16,000?  Do we want to make sure we destroy all the cockroaches too?  And the rats?  Cockroaches and rats are said to be highly resilient and capable of adapting to severe environments.

Some points to consider:

Fifty years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it was reported that most vegetation still couldn’t be grown there. 70,000 people died immediately. By year’s end there were an additional 30,000 deaths from fallout. Within five years the total death toll attributable to this event may have stood at 200,000. The yield of the Hiroshima A-bomb was 15 kilotons. Modern nuclear warheads have a yield of 1/ 2 megaton or more. A megaton is 1,000 times the power of a kiloton.

As a result of the Chernobyl Nuclear plant disaster on April 26, 1986, at Reactor #4 more than 350,000 people from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine had to be evacuated.  The city of Pripyat, which is located in the immediate vicinity, stands today as a ghost town.  It had contained a population of 50,000 people prior to the disaster.  However, even more thought provoking is the fact that a plume of radioactive air drifted over the Western Soviet Union and all of Europe except the Iberian Peninsula.  Imagine radioactivity scattering over an entire continent.  From just one nuclear accident! So extrapolate the possible results that would occur if we experienced the equivalent of 1600 Chernobyls (remember 800 nukes being blown by each – the USA and Russia) and you get the picture.

Just as dramatic but a little more than a century earlier in August, 1883, the volcano known as Krakatoa on the island of Krakatau went into its final massive eruption after earlier smaller warning bursts.  Three quarters of that island was wiped off the face of the earth.  At the same time, the event was so cataclysmic as to create entire new islands.  The force of the volcano’s blast was estimated at 200 megatons.  1,600 nuclear bombs being detonated based on an average size of ½ a megaton would yield blasts equaling 800 megatons.   The 200 megaton Krakatoa blast was so loud that it could be heard 3,000 miles away in the island nation of Mauritius and 2,200 miles away in Perth, Western Australia.  In simpler terms, if it had taken place in Los Angeles, CA you would have heard it in New York City.

Tsunamis 100 feet high were widespread and occurred as far away as South Africa.  One tsunami measuring 151 feet high obliterated a town known as Merak in the northwestern tip of Java Indonesia.  Debris resulting from this eruption was scattered as far away as Madagascar completely across the Indian Ocean. Average global temperatures dropped 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit and remained that way for several years. But the most telling phenomenon of all may be what happened to the sky.  The entire planet’s sky was darkened for years afterwards and spectacular surreal sunsets occurred for many months after.

Although it doesn’t concern itself with the industry of building nuclear bombs specifically, a documentary entitled “Why We Fight” available as a download off the internet provides some eerie insight into this quagmire.  It was produced by Eugene Jarecki of the BBC.  It points out that wars make use of expensive equipment and weapons.  Corporations that manufacture these items stand to make huge profits from their sale.  These corporations throw a great deal of support at the politicians who vote on whether or not to make war and the corporations expect the politicians to show them allegiance and vote accordingly.  It’s all related to what Dwight Eisenhower described as the “military industrial complex.”  Nuclear missiles are expensive to produce and maintain.  The cold war which resulted in the production of much of the USA’s and Russia’s nuclear arsenal was a boon to big business in these two countries. You get the picture.

To borrow from Disneyworld, “It’s a small world.”  Massive detonation of nuclear bombs would show us just how small it really is.

When will people worldwide wake up to the deadly potential of nuclear weapons? It is a Damoclean sword that hangs over each and every one of our heads.

Copyright 2009; Greg S.