Obviously this means that air travel is still relatively affordable in real life, doesn't it?
There's an Atlas Shrugged movie coming out today
- Thread starter 23skidoo
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Obviously this means that air travel is still relatively affordable in real life, doesn't it?
Not if gas prices shoot through the roof--causing airlines to raise rates to compensate. Meanwhile, CSX Trains in particular are renowned for bosting a mileage of over 400 MPG--energy efficiency to make even the best hybrid car green* with envy.
*(Pun wasn't intentional; just a terrible coincidence....)
*(Pun wasn't intentional; just a terrible coincidence....)
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Ad hominem, ad nauseam....
There were only two books we had to read in school that I was never able to finish. Those were Moby Dick and Atlas Shrugged, for the sheer boredom factor. So I don't think I'll be seeing the movie.
(Emphasis added)
Where did you go to school? Leonard Peikoff High?
Yes, because a super hero comic is totally comparable to a novel meant to describe an economic/social philosophy that is supposed to function in the real world.
Thanks for making my point. It's affordable because it's faster, and people are taking time into account with the price.
But TOTALLY hilarious.
For the record, I did no such thing.
There were only two books we had to read in school that I was never able to finish. Those were Moby Dick and Atlas Shrugged, for the sheer boredom factor. So I don't think I'll be seeing the movie.
(Emphasis added)
Where did you go to school? Leonard Peikoff High?
A normal suburban public high school. Moby Dick was in our Junior year and Atlas Shrugged was for this essay contest. It was optional to read the book and write something on it to earn some big scholarship. I tried, but just couldn't do it!
I suspect this will have a very good first weekend as the faithful rush to the theaters. Its basically 'Passion of the Christ' for teabaggers.
As for the air vs train thing, yeah I'd take the train if its humanly possible. Just because I don't like being nickeled and dimed to death by fees, then being cavity searched by some minimum wage security goon once I get to the airport.
As for the air vs train thing, yeah I'd take the train if its humanly possible. Just because I don't like being nickeled and dimed to death by fees, then being cavity searched by some minimum wage security goon once I get to the airport.
You did. People take time into account for affordability. Even with the prices of airlines, people still chose them over buses. So, now, in the movie world of Atlas Shrugged, we're supposed to believe that airline travel SOOO unaffordable we're turning back to trains? Boy, business people must really suck in Atlas Shrugged, even with oil over 100 bucks a barrel in our world, people are still flying.
It's funny because it's true, the one positive review up now is from Murdoch's New York Post.
How does an America that embraces and requires mediocrity develop a nationwide network of high-speed rail?
What does that say about a political party dead set against allowing even that to happen?
For the very last time, I did not "make your point for you". Got it?
You are free to state your own position, but I really do not think you have the right to claim that I agree with you, especially when I say I don't. And nor do I believe that anything I have said implies your position.
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Not here on Trek BBS. Especially in TNZ.
Well, it is, in a way. Like Lawrence of Arabia is about camels.
That's an interesting contrivance to update the story to the present day, but it's a bit of a reach. Having read the book (okay, I skimmed some of the interminable speeches), I always envisioned it taking place in an alternate reality or parallel history, with a mix of set designs, buildings, furnishings, clothing, technology and vehicles from the mid-1930s to the late '50s.
But that would require the resources of a big-budget, major studio production, which this is not.
Some people. I've generally taken Greyhound for long journeys, not only because I don't like to fly, but because -- contrary to your assumption -- it's actually significantly cheaper to go by bus than by plane. I just checked Greyhound vs. airline fares for a one-way trip from Cincinnati to New York City leaving tonight, and it was $108 by Greyhound, while the lowest available air fare was $225.
Trains vs. airlines is, I find, about a tossup; trains are maybe a little pricier, but not by much. So this huge cost advantage to flying over trains that you're talking about actually doesn't exist. It wouldn't take that great a change to make trains significantly more affordable than planes. Especially if America finally came to its senses and started building bullet trains. Bullet trains are cool.
How do you know there isn't a valid explanation? You're just assuming there can't be, and that shows a failure of imagination. Perhaps the world has nearly run out of oil -- it is a nonrenewable resource, you know. Perhaps the high-speed trains are powered by solar or geothermal energy or something far more inexpensive than jet fuel.
From what I know of the movie, it's not because the world ran out of oil. And the basis of the movie is more about this super exciting steel.
edited to add: I would guess MOST people choose airlines over bus travel. And actually, I never assumed that people took the bus because they didn't like to fly. My assumption is that people who take the bus do so because it's cheaper. However, I'm also assuming that MOST people, who are choosing between bus or air travel, choose air travel, with it's more expensive plane ticket, because it's faster.
^A behind-the-scenes look shows a scene being filmed in which Ellis Wyatt, the character trying to Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less--he's on a news channel, saying that "Thanks to government bureaucrats--we're still addicted to foreign oil!"
With the Middle East crisis, OPEC drives up oil prices, forcing the US to cut back, because the government would not allow folks like the Wyatt character to innovate here, drill in ANWR, etc.
With the Middle East crisis, OPEC drives up oil prices, forcing the US to cut back, because the government would not allow folks like the Wyatt character to innovate here, drill in ANWR, etc.
Have you all flown lately? God, the easiest thing in the world to imagine is the airline industry distintegrating to the point that people return to other means to get around the continent.
Oh. I have. It's awful. But, America is made up of suckers. We like nothing more than to complain, but, we're not gonna do anything about it.
And just for the record, I would LOVE it if the US had high speed rail. When I lived in New York, it was great taking the train upstate or down to Philly.
If there were always people willing to pay for shorter travel times, and pay enough to keep an airline in business, why did Air France and British Airways retire the Concord?
Because it was a fuel hog, it was enormously expensive to operate and maintain, the aging Concorde fleet was at the end of its useful service life, and they weren't manufacturing any new ones.
Anyway, let's make up our minds, folks. Is this the Atlas Shrugged thread or the air-vs.-train travel thread?
It is both--and neither.
