BY RUSSELL TURNER
FRUIT JAR BANK
One of the greatest lessons that any businessman can learn is the ability to keep his or her expenses under control. I guess I was fortunate, I learned that lesson very early in life. I can remember picking strawberries when I was a child; I leaned the true value of money and how hard it was to earn it by crawling over flint rocks in the berry patch. Like most other kids I would bring home my day’s earnings and carefully count it and put it into a fruit jar and screw the lid on very tight. I am lucky to have parents that helped guide me on how to get the best use out of my hard earned money. Unlike our government, I had to budget that money that I had in my fruit jar bank because that was all I had, and if I didn’t exercise some common sense I would quickly be broke and the jar would be empty. Earlier this week I read an article about President-Elect Trump wanting to cancel an order for two new airplanes which would be Air Force 1 and 2, we Americans are fortunate to have a president who understands the concept of the fruit jar bank.
Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents; the projected cost for those two planes will be more than $4 billion. Donald Trump has stated that he believes the cost is out of control and the order should be canceled. The current 747-200Bs were delivered in 1990. Boeing plans to replace the two 747-200B aircraft with two new, modified 747-8 planes. Granted, there will be special equipment on Air Force One, but when you look at the retail price for the 747-8 there is quite a bit of difference in price. The cost of a passenger version of one new 747-8 costs $356.9 million, and the freight-hauling version is $357.5 million.
Our federal budget has become so large that a billion here and a billion there don’t amount to much, but I have found that the little expenses can accumulate to a big expense. I had also read that the cost to build a nuclear aircraft carrier is in the ballpark of $10 billion; at the cost Boeing is wanting for two planes it would be a pretty good down payment on another war ship. There are countless Boeing 747’s being used every day. They are good workhorses, and with good maintenance they still have a lot of life left in them. I agree that the Obamas have been using Air Force One as their own personal vacation jet, but even with that use it is still comparable to an auto owned by a little ol’ lady who only used it to go to church on Sundays. I am glad that Trump is taking a hard look at the spending by our government. He understands that the money so many in Washington like to throw around doesn’t belong to them; our elected leaders are only stewards of our money. Who knows, maybe even Donald Trump may have had a few fruit jars in his past.
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