Not that I'm a fan of the TSA by any stretch, but that's a pretty grievous misunderstanding of the root issue.
Holding the "pleebs" to a higher standard than the rich is unconscionable IMO.
2. Money buys you things. By definition people with more money will not be burdened by the same things as those with less.
The commons are a superset of things provisioned by government, and we expect that the commons will be relatively unburdened and available equally to rich and poor.
Being unburdened by hunger and stress about paying rent is one thing; being unburdened by preferential treatment by the state is another.
Rate for a Gulfstream jet was about $2500 per hour.
So, "for the rich".
I think we're upper-middle-class-ish, but there's no way we could justify chartering a jet for a family vacation if it costs as much as a car (a smaller jet might "only" be around $12,000 for the same trip AFAICT).
Can a Cessna 172 take me and my wife and child across the country to New York? Is parking a plane there free?
"Especially as a hobby" has nothing to do with what we're talking about here. Horseback riding is also affordable as a hobby, but nobody's bringing it up in a thread about the TSA because it has just as much relevance.
Can a Cessna 172 get you to New York? Sure, if you have the time. It'll be a long and monotonous flight though.
Now, with all of that said, your point still stands. GA flying is a hobby and almost always more expensive than hopping on an airline.
You can drive at 70MPH. Windspeed doesn't impact you. The Cesna will cruise at ~140MPH. Windspeed might delay your arrival to the point that it's much faster to drive for shorter trips though. The jet will do 530MPH.
Maybe the Cesna makes sense if there's no reasonably direct route by freeway. Or you're island hopping. It seems like a fairly small window where chartering a Cesna makes sense though (IMO). You can't transport a family of 4 with luggage. It'll be more expensive than the (commercial, not private) Jet, and take about 4 times longer. For every 1-1/2 hours of Jet travel, you'll have to refuel the Cesna as well. And if you though economy class on a commercial Jet was uncomfortable you're in for a rude awakening as well. ;-)
Right. Like, laws and shit.
I'm not sure what's unreasonable about the comparison. If the TSA were actually necessary, it would seem like a huge gap in security to allow just anyone with the cash to charter a few private jets around the country.
I'm not calling the comparison unreasonable, I'm simply saying that the two are not the same, so it's perfectly reasonable for the security to be different too.