DHS claims it will cost over 5 thousand dollars a foot to build wall

Just told a builder pal of mine Big Dave and he said he will do it for 200 quid a foot but not until March cos he is swamped at the mo.

If all of the material and labor is purchased from American companies that pay taxes. By the time that money changes hand 5 times, the government gets it all back it taxes again.

I read it was between $12 and $38 billion for the wall.

www.latimes.com...

You know how the government works, why go cheap when you can pay triple.


Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to just make it impossible for illegals to work here?

a reply to: brutus61

You're disregarding many, many things, like the process that the federal government must, by law, go through to hire labor (and there would be a LOT of expertise needed for such a thing), choose vendors for the materials, etc.

On top of that, prisoners are not indentured servants--they don't have an obligation, nor do I think that we have a right as a nation, to make someone do work against their will for what would absolutely end up being less than minimum wage. Not to mention having to worry about workplace accidents, prisoners being so close to the border that they somehow escape into Mexico, and myriad other issues that would be an absolute negative when considering using prisoners for labor.

You also must consider the reality that certain unions would sue the government for not giving them a fair chance at winning the bid for the jobs...and trust me, that would definitely happen.

In my opinion, we need to let the dream of a wall go, and instead, we need to beef up different, more technologically advanced security. We need to allow our border patrol to actually do their jobs to the fullest extent that they can. We need to start allowing the local law enforcement of border towns and states to supplement border security if they're willing, or for those same entities to create sub-federal-level border enforcement of their own.

There are a lot of ways that border security can be enhanced, but I think that a massive wall at the cost of billions of dollars may not be the appropriate option, especially considering our perpetual debt and deficit that we face as a nation.

originally posted by: FelisOrion
a reply to: tribal

Oh my my, the delusion is too real.

I would love to see the person who would do backbreaking manual labor for just a hot meal and a pictures with Donald. Show me that man, and I'll show you an emasculated one.

Yes back breaking labor lol have you ever done construction before? I have and its not as hard as you think. This will be a big job it will require lots of hard work and will be time consuming but its not breaking big rocks into smaller rocks with a pick axe 16 hours a day on a chain gang. We have modern equipment.

Lol you say its back breaking labor on one hand then say anyone who does it for food is emasculated. Let me ask you a question what do you do for a living?

So a couple thoughts here...

1. This 'fence' must be the last bastions of hope, the last hiding place, for the crooked career politicians who were so roundly defeated in the recent elections to once again fleece the American taxpayers of their hard earned dollars. Hey, if you can't beat Trump then why not sign up with him to build the wall and build it out of pure "unobtainium" costing bazillions of dollars (but really build it out of bailing wire and duct tape and pocket the rest), right?

2. On a more serious note, the stated costs surely must include something else such as land acquisition costs and legal fees. If this is the case, why not just declare the land a "national monument" and take it for free (Obama didn't seem to have any problem doing this), and then the fence will cost $500 million...as opposed to $38 BILLION!!

That is all.

What the heck are they making the wall out of?

a fiber plantlike material consisting of mainly dry grain stalks... or as we in the trade call "Straw"...

if you want a brick wall it's going to cost extra...

a reply to: FelisOrion

you obviously have no patriotism at all. I can guarantee you there are thousands of good hardworking americans who live by the border who have suffered decades of fear and abuse at the hands of illegals who would gladly donate of their time and energy to make this happen.

Funny you would call an act of patriotism (protecting the border) emasculating. I see it exactly the opposite and i have no doubt most good americans would see it my way.

a reply to: brutus61

With a little luck.
After all, anyone looking to jump the wall has most likely been traveling on foot for awhile. They might need to use the facilities.

What the he## are they making the fence out of? If my calculations are correct they are saying that it cost $5,208.88 per ft to build a fence! 1 mile is 5280ft times 400mi is 2,112,000ft. If you divide 11,000,000,000 by 2,112,000 you get $5,208.00. So if we combine prison labor($100.00per ft)with a more realistic cost(($100.00per ft)that is high in my book) you could build the 400 mile fence for $422,000,000. That would be a savings of over 10.5 billion.

Hey EVERYONE knows that Trump is never wrong and ALWAYS speaks the truth and NEVER waivers. Even HE said he expected the 'Wall' to cost between $5-$8 billion. So you clearly are FOS. Now construction professionals say the 'Wall' would cost between $15 and $25 billion which makes sense. Trump will use his 'go-to' business model of stiffing contractors to get that 50% savings. So you clearly don't know what you're talking about.

a reply to: Macenroe82

I don't know who your contractor is, but I will undercut him by 50%.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to just make it impossible for illegals to work here?

Shhh. We're talking about government funding...common sense has no place in it.

You cannot force prisoners to work but you can make them offers like 2 for 1 on time spent building the wall. You have a year to do get it done in 6 months but building the wall. They do it all the time on the county level.

Once you start looking I bet all the design and such is done for most of it. Build it it's winter a good time to start in the worst places before they start heading north in the spring.

originally posted by: FelisOrion
a reply to: tribal

Oh my my, the delusion is too real.

I would love to see the person who would do backbreaking manual labor for just a hot meal and a pictures with Donald. Show me that man, and I'll show you an emasculated one.

You can count me in

If Australia had an issue like this is as a nation building exercise was looking for volunteers Id put my hand up in a second.

Provide food, lodgings and nightly entertainment and you dont have back breaking work you have a festival.

originally posted by: tribal
if Trump asked for volunteers to come help build it for free i can guarantee thousands would show up. All he would have to do is offer to feed everyone who works, give them a commemorative plaque or take a picture with them and he would have to TURN people away.

Another thing he could do is ask companies who specialize in making the materials needed for the wall available at a special rate in exchange for special status or recognition and again he would probably have to turn businesses away.

There are many ways to skin a cat here and as usual the Lefties have no imagination at all and prefer to create a completely distorted version of reality.

We could also add this option:

Take for instance every illegal immigrant that gets caught in court pulling the old "I'm not legal, send me home" get out of jail trick. We do this-

Charge them transportation costs only payable by labor contract, transport them to an assigned work area, where they work for so many hours/days/months.... Under supervision of course. Then let em go home after they've completed their "costs" worth of work. Add on a fee for supervision, food, water, clothes, etc...

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Seems to me we need to abolish some of those rules if they make the cost of anything government-related so darn expensive.

There is no good reason why the government should be so much less efficient at building infrastructure by design than any private firm who can just decide to do something, hire the labor and get it done.

Again, this goes back to draining the swamp. A lot of government is its own problem as much as everyone else's.

a reply to: brutus61

Why put in a wall when you can drop down an electrified fence with tons of data acquisition equipment, sensors and cameras. It's way less expensive in the long run.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: brutus61
Well think of the employment it will bring to the area.

originally posted by: crayzeed
a reply to: brutus61
Well think of the employment it will bring to the area.

Maybe that's the centerpiece of the new infrastructure stimulus? A wall?

originally posted by: bobs_uruncle
a reply to: brutus61

Why put in a wall when you can drop down an electrified fence with tons of data acquisition equipment, sensors and cameras. It's way less expensive in the long run.

Cheers - Dave

Because then you would actually provide proof there's a problem, while at the same time be doing something proactive about it- instead of denying there's a problem while milking it for billions.