HAND HOLDING SUGGESTED AS ALTERNATIVE TO BORDER FENCE

Writing in the LA Times, Patt Morrison reckons building a fence along the Mexican border is insanity:

Did I mention the cost? Two million dollars a mile? In their dreams. For what this fence would eventually cost, you could hire enough border patrol officers to hold hands the length of the border and taunt in singsong, "Red Rover, Red Rover, let Pancho come over."

Lets assume the border patrol officers are all six foot tall entry pay level ($43,705) officers standing five feet apart holding hands in three shifts. By my calculations the cost per mile per year would be – not including numerous inevitable extras – US$138,457,440. The proposed 700 mile fence would cost $1.4 billion while hand holding offcers come in at $96,920,208,000. That $95 billion difference would buy lots of land mines.