July 27, 2011--Roughing It

Now I understand why John Boehner and his Republicans are fighting so hard to preserve tax breaks for owners of private jets.

It's not about jobs, as they claim. It's not concern about what all those pilots will do if the folks they work for have to pay a couple of thousand dollars a year more for their Gulfstreams.

My summer governor, Maine's Tea Party favorite Paul LaPage has got it figured out.

While eying the line up of private jets along the runway at Augusta's usually sleepy State Airport, he was overheard saying, "Love it, love it, love it. I wish they'd stay a week while they're here. This is big business."

He wasn't referring to an elite conference of corporate CEOs, such as the one hosted by Allen & Company each year in Sun Valley where the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Rupert Murdoch show up to hobnob. Rather the jets he was ogling were ones that had just delivered children and their parents to summer camps in the Maine woods.

Why jets? Why not just drive up here from New York, or wherever? Well, it seems, it's a long drive. And since it "only" costs $3,800 to fly a private turboprop from New York to Augusta, to quote Blue Star Jets president Todd Rome, "You don't have to be a millionaire." Though I'm sure it helps. (See linked New York Times article.)

The manager of the airport does all he can to literally cater to the needs and wants of his summertime customers. For return flights he arranges the catering. He reported that orders traditionally include sandwiches and fruit trays. But some are a little more idiosyncratic. One youngster, for example, ordered a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, ordinary enough, but also a banana, brownie, and fruit cup with a single strawberry.

He also reports that in spite of the economic downturn, the private jet business this year is booming. The number of incoming flights has already increased, as compared to last year, by more than 30 percent.

But some are concerned about the not-so-subliminal messages being communicated to the children of the very rich who their parents also want to see taught "good values." There is, to say the least, some contradiction between flying your 13-year-old in a private jet to camps that emphasize the simple, rustic life. No TVs, no Internet connectivity, no text-messaging. Hard work, ecology, and survival skills are what's on the agenda at these camps where tuition for six or seven weeks is at least $10,000. Nothing appears to be in the green curriculum about how much jet fuel was wasted flying around in private planes.

One parent, troubled by seeing so many of her children's camp friends arriving in such a privileged way decided--"Enough." Instead of sending her kids to camp in Maine she now packs them off to camp in Europe where I assume they bunk side-by-side with Algerian immigrants.