Fun with math

[lapfog_1]

Just for fun, I wondered how much a concrete wall on our southern border would be...

Assumptions... wall would be 30 ft high (probably 20 feet above ground) and 10 ft thick (could be less I suppose, it's not a dam).

At 1,989 miles of wall (let's not count existing wall segments for the moment...

Using various online concrete calculators... it's around 215 billion kg of concrete. Current US consumption of concrete is around 232 kg per person... this would be 3 times that amount.

In other words, 3 years of concrete consumption in the entire US would be needed to build a wall that is unlikely to stop anyone (tunnel under... or go over as 20 feet above ground is simply not that high).

Probably a similar consumption of rebar steel would be needed (3 to 4 years worth). If built it would seriously damage our economy by stopping the building of almost any other infrastructure project (buildings, roads, sewers, etc) for anywhere from 3 years to a decade or more.

[MariaThinks]

1. a 31 foot ladder would be the kryptonite

[lapfog_1]

3. A more effective wall would need to be 60 to 70 feet high

with likely a deeper foundation... and possibly wider at the bottom.

Few people would try to put up and climb a ladder 6 stories high without intermediate platforms and handrails, etc. Then you need to get over the top of wall barrier of rolled barb wire and other impediments , then the dangerous decent down the US side of the wall.

However, even that would not be effective against a tunnel that is 20 to 30 feet below ground.

But my main point is that such a wall, even if it was effective, would simply kill our economy for more than a decade not to mention create enormous deficits for years and years to come.

Projects like this that do not contribute to the economy or infrastructure of the nation are exactly the sort of projects that kill off entire civilizations. Think Egypt and the pyramids or Easter Island and the Moai (were the decline and eventual die off of the islanders MAY have been due to the resources used to build the statues).

[auntpurl]

2. John Oliver did a whole segment about this

[unblock]

4. thing is, it's an obvious lie. problem is, lies often work.

we have some friends who are republicans, and these friendships are greatly aided by avoiding political discussions.

but there are a few exceptions, and in one of them a hardcore texas republican admitted that she (and many other republicans) know damn well that republicans leaders offer them lies, but they're convinced that democrats lie too, so they prefer to vote for the more appealing lie.

makes me want to hit my head against the wall, but i have to accept that this is the way she (and according to her, many republican voters) "think".


if trump somehow wins (gulp!), the wall will never be built. no one in congress will really be behind it, certainly not the democrats, and republicans wouldn't want to pay for it, and trump's claim that he'd get mexico to pay for it is idiotic. so he'd send a few more border guards there and claim victory.


besides, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants *come here perfectly legally* and simply don't leave when their visas expire.