RICHARD EPSTEIN ON CORPORATE JETS: Would We Ever Ground Air Force One?

Recent estimates of the direct cost of flying Air Force One range from about $60,000 per hour on the low side to $181,000 per hour on the high side. None of these figures include the extensive advance planning and immense support services needed to coordinate activity on the ground, both in the United States and overseas. The presidential salary of $400,000 per year would be wiped out many times over if he had to pay, say, 10 percent of the jet’s direct costs.

Just think of the number of college scholarships and food inspection programs this nation could fund if it had the moral courage to make the president fly first-class commercial on international long hauls, take Amtrak for shorter trips, and use Skype for critical one-on-one negotiations. If the president could make this sacrifice for the nation, why can’t spoiled bank executives and industrial tycoons adopt similar cost saving measures?

My sage proposal shows how easy it is to don the mantle of a populist reformer. And how unwise. The thoughtful reader should not take long to see that it is every bit as foolish to condemn those corporate jet owners for their supposed over-indulgences as it is to condemn the president for his.

Read the whole thing. Related item here, with amusing Photoshop.