It's amusing to see some of my Libertarian/Republican friends--people who are normally deeply skeptical of government cost projections for stadiums, high speed rail--suddenly become budget pollyannas when it comes to cost estimates for Trump's border wall.
Government cost projections routinely underestimate the ultimate costs by a factor of 10. (1, 2) So, taking Trump's $10 billion estimates (3) as the baseline, the actual cost of building the wall would be at least $100 billon dollars.
Most illegal immigrants get here legally, but overstay their visa. But even if most non-government approved immigrants walked across the border, it's relatively easy to climb a wall or dig under it, or bribe a guard.
So you'd need a massive staff to make it at all effective. Like other government employees, those border guards would unionize, and fight for high pay and benefits. And as with the failed War on Drugs, the border guard unions would fight against any cuts, long after it became clear that it was a wasteful boondoggle.
So, US taxpayers would be stuck with the $100+ billion in initial costs, plus billions more in ongoing staffing costs, all for a wall that doesn't even address the main route of illegal immigration.
(1) http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/03/the-facts-about-the-government
(2) https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/12/29/years-later-did-big-dig-deliver/tSb8PIMS4QJUETsMpA7SpI/story.html
(3) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37243269
(4)
Government cost projections routinely underestimate the ultimate costs by a factor of 10. (1, 2) So, taking Trump's $10 billion estimates (3) as the baseline, the actual cost of building the wall would be at least $100 billon dollars.
Most illegal immigrants get here legally, but overstay their visa. But even if most non-government approved immigrants walked across the border, it's relatively easy to climb a wall or dig under it, or bribe a guard.
So you'd need a massive staff to make it at all effective. Like other government employees, those border guards would unionize, and fight for high pay and benefits. And as with the failed War on Drugs, the border guard unions would fight against any cuts, long after it became clear that it was a wasteful boondoggle.
So, US taxpayers would be stuck with the $100+ billion in initial costs, plus billions more in ongoing staffing costs, all for a wall that doesn't even address the main route of illegal immigration.
(1) http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/03/the-facts-about-the-government
(2) https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/12/29/years-later-did-big-dig-deliver/tSb8PIMS4QJUETsMpA7SpI/story.html
(3) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37243269
(4)
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