You got me Dog, I was throwing numbers out there about the cost of a wag bag. But I wouldn't use Amazon.com to estimate how much the federal government actually pays for things. If anyone could do some research and find out how much this wag bag program actually costs, that would be great. My point is still valid, cost has never been the big issue for this difficult problem whether it was toilets or wag bags.
As for the 20,000 number, the average number of hikers who hit the trail is about 17,000/yr. There are a lot of cancellations who don't get a refund and every person who takes a cancellation means they collect double. The $300,000/yr number is probably low but close enough. Again, if anyone could do some research and let us know the annual fees that are collected, that would be great. In any case, I think there's plenty of money to hire a Lone Pine packer to run llamas up the trail weekly for a few months and take it to the treatment plant. If it ain't, then people would pay a little more to have nice facilities.
Plain and simple, economics is a red herring. Let's get back to the real issue, do people want to enter a lottery for 20,000 permits or 3,000 permits (pick your own number if they reduce the quotas).
Edited to be as neutral, honest, and non-offensive as reasonably possible given the many ways people can interpret things.
Last edited by SierraNevada; 06/17/13 09:39 PM.
