03/26/2024 9:21:42 PM PDT
· 5 of 43 jfd1776
to Jamestown1630
There are a number of good approaches that would help, in theory.
Some ports require tugboats with pilots who know the harbor and its currents to pull the vessel in... but American tugboats aren’t strong enough, and in fact even European tugs, which are ten times stronger than ours, would have trouble keeping control of a massive modern containership.
Similarly, many ports put concrete dolphins around these kinds of ports - the bumper/barriers to which you refer. And again, this does help in most cases.
But would it help against a modern post-panamax containership?
The problem we face here is that today’s containerships are enormous. The one that hit the bridge last night was only a quarter the size of the biggest standard on the market today, and even bigger ones are on their way.
I believe that both concrete barriers and tugboats would be a great improvement... but they still couldn’t be counted on to prevent an accident like this, because modern ships are just too big. By comparison, the tugboat next to a containership looks like a little ladybug next to a buffalo.
I just don’t believe you can protect against this kind of accident adequately enough for a billion dollar bridge. It can be better, but it can’t be near certain. The risk will still be there as long as there’s a bridge that containerships sail under.
Coming up with numbers that people can agree on is one of the hardest things about writing this sort of article. I’ve seen numbers all over the place, because there are disagreements on what to count.
I tend to use the most conservative numbers so as not to look like an extreme alarmist. I think even the most conservative way to look at these numbers is terrifying enough.
Here’s a site that at least tries to be fair, showing some numbers that most people agree should be counted, and other numbers above that are just as real but are often considered outside the “national debt”... which brings the total closer to your number.
I’m not disagreeing with you at all... I’d rather use the higher numbers, frankly, since I think they’re more honest. but every year it gets worse, no matter how you slice it. I think you might have agreed with me had you kept reading, but I see your point.
And when you consider the unfunded mandates, and the daily continued invasion at the border, these other differences become a minor rounding error by comparison. The real national debt is well over $200 trillion and counting.