Just a Momentary Rumination on Fences

One of the things that seems to come up in the discussion of "How to Deal with Illegal Immigration" is the idea of building this huge freaking fence. Herman Cain recently raised a little ire, but was joking, or wasn't entirely joking, by suggesting that the whole of the huge freaking fence built across every single inch of the 1200 or so miles of US/Mexican border be electrified.

Yes.  And have alligators.  I'm not sure why the alligators aren't as big a deal as the electrified bits, but there you are.  Seriously:

“We’ve got to secure the border. Truly secure it. I had a caller one night call in: ‘Mr. Cain, you conservatives have got to stop this talk about building a fence.’ I said, Why? ‘You know that is impractical.’ Oh really? I think I had just got back from China, and I went to the Great Wall of China. They built a wall; I think with today’s technology we can build a fence. And if they were to put me in charge of the fence, I know we’d build a fence. Somebody asked me, well, what kind of fence would you build? I tell you, it would be a combination of technology and a real fence. It would be about 20 feet high. It would have electrified barbed wire on the top. And on this side of it, it would have a moat the depth of a football field. And yes, Mr. President, it would have alligators in it.”

I contend it's possible that Herman Cain is joking about both the electrification and the alligators: after all, I suspect he's actually joking about this whole "having a campaign where he's running for the job of President with the intention of taking office someday".  But I don't think anyone has ever truly though about the cost of building an actual, durable fence, with the appropriate monitoring (because, seriously--it's just a physical construct--either you need cameras or you need watchtowers to make it effective, nein?) And then, the cost of having it electrified. And of course, the care and feeding of alligators when they are not, ahem, being compensated for their border-guarding services in the course of the performance of their duties.  And the irrigation necessary to service the moat containing the alligators. Etc.

In a climate where the cost of maintaining bridges and roads--even though these repairs are necessary and create good, decent-paying American jobs--are debated as possibly being too costly to the US Treasury, how can we countenance the expense of not only the new construction of the fence, but the energy expenditure of electrifying it and the maintenance of the alligators--indefinitely?  I ask you!  And while we're at it, if it's even possible to get a grant out of Homeland Security to take care of the fence, the moat, and the electrified security system, why don't we just go whole-hog and get sharks with big freaking lasers mounted on their heads? Because, you know, we have the technology.

Or course, I could be joking, if anyone is offended.