Amazon has offered to help the Biden administration with the vaccine distribution. While the progressives are urging cautions against big tech firms, I noticed the interesting timing that Amazon made its offer: right after the new president has sworn in, but not when Trump was the president. This proves one thing: Goodwill of the president matters, being a nice guy helps. Honestly, I do not blame Amazon for doing this: Working with people of good reputation is always a legitimate reason for doing business.
“Trump Wall” Or Solar Border Wall?
I got up this morning and suddenly came up with the idea that we could turn the so called “Trump Wall” into one of the biggest solar projects in the world. Sure, China’s Great Wall is longer at more than 13,170 miles, more than three times as long as the current length of the Trump wall. But the Great Wall was built over centuries of time and was entirely on sweated labors. Other than national defense, it had served no other purpose (except for tourism today). But a Trump Wall, which the contractors had been rushing to reach 452 miles by January 5th of this year right before Biden entered the office according to Wikipedia, can serve a great purpose of providing alternative energy for sustainable environment — if we add the solar panels to it.
Being a guy with self-awareness, both the internal and external types, I was worried that I may steal others’ ideas. So I Googled it this morning and sure enough, it was Donald Trump himself who had used the “solar panel” pitch to persuade the Congress for funds. Trump deserved some credit, although it is highly likely that someone else, most likely some solar companies in the US, who had approached him for that idea, in order to make money out of it. But that’s the beauty of capitalism, when everyone tries to gain for oneself, and by doing that one may just create social goods along the way.
Reasons for Continuing the Wall
Anyway, I think Biden should not categorically brush away the wall simply because Trump started it, especially when the country can make multiple uses of it.
First of all, stopping the wall now leads to a big waste of the resources already sunken in the existing sections of the wall. Economics tells us to simply ignore the sunk cost so we can focus on marginal cost, but reality is more complicated than the textbook. For one thing, It should partly depend on the ratio of sunk versus the projected costs. If the former is much larger than the latter, it would be a good sign that completing the project is better off than deserting it. In any case, it warrants more careful considerations for optimal tradeoff.
Secondly, putting ideologies aside, the decision depends even more on the final benefits from the finished wall. We must ask ourselves what challenges we face and whether and how the Trump wall can help us meet the challenge.
Aside from the anti-immigration stance that Trump holds, it is safe to say that the US does face a border security problem now and perhaps forever, simply because what I want to call a “Winner’s curse”: A successful and rich country always possesses some magnetic power to attract citizens from the failed or weaker neighbors. Demand for immigration will always be higher than the country can and will accept. Having a wall that is wired with high technologies helps reduce, albeit not eliminate, illegal immigrants. One does not have to hold the anti-immigration position to appreciate a wall.
Another reality is that it is better and more cost efficient to stop illegal immigrants before they enter the country. Once inside, it costs more to drive them out.
The single most cost-efficient driver is the solar wall. This report in 2017 told us that “a solar border wall would generate approximately 7.28 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity each day (2,657.2 GWh per year) and power 220,000 average-size homes annually, according to one solar installation firm.” and “The electricity production would be worth approximately $106 million per year.” To translate into plain English, the wall is “enough to power up 220,000 average-size homes annually” even at the efficiency level of solar panels in 2017. It can only get higher with today’s technologies.
Making the Trump wall a solar wall, it has the potential to let the wall pay itself in the long run. Quoting the above report again, “At the Department of Homeland Security’s estimate of the wall’s construction at $21.6 billion, a solar-powered barrier would eventually pay for itself (if it continues to produce over $106 million per year of electricity), Grieser says. But it would take decades.”
I also want to add that the border areas are not only sunny but may also be windy. When the high wind hits the tall wall suddenly, it would generate wind power through installed wind turbines, yet another source of green power from the nature. I believe it would help alleviate some criticism against the wall, at least making the wall a lesser evil.
Building walls in diverse and tough terrain allows accumulation of infrastructural experiences and also helps create employment. Who knows, some day the wall may become a new tourist attraction of the country, serving as a landmark of the US homeland security, as well as strengthening its manufacturing and installation muscles, way more advanced than the Great Wall of China.
Finally, the wall could serve as a symbol that the Biden administration is open to anything that is good to the nation. After all, calling for unity ten thousand times is not as powerful as showing the willingness to carry on bipartisan agenda.