FWIW, Los Angeles is not known for having a surplus of brain power.
Eh. It's not just L.A., and it's not just brain power. I wouldn't expect most ordinary people anywhere to know the weight of the shuttle, nor the payload capacity of a helicopter.
It's more like general whininess. Too many people seem to believe that they're somehow entitled to perfect little lives, where they can have whatever they like, and they never have to "suffer" any kind of inconvenience at all.
Off the top of my head, I can think of a few other examples of this phenomenon, such as when people:
... oppose the erection of cell towers, and then complain when they can't get a cell signal.
... complain about potholes or other problems on a road, and then complain when the repairs close the road or slow down traffic.
... advocate "zero-tolerance" policies against [fill in whatever here], and then complain when those policies lead to bizarre results.
... insist that school bus drivers wait until kids being transported home from school are safely inside the doors of their homes before driving away, but then complain when it takes longer for their children to get home from school.
... complain that the nearest [whatever] is too far away, but oppose the construction of another [whatever] in their neighborhoods.
... blatantly defy hands-free phone laws while driving, and then complain when they are ticketed. (This one seems more common among women, for some reason. I almost never see men using handheld phones while driving, but I see women doing it all the time. I have no idea why.)
... oppose the construction of new roads, and then complain when the existing ones become congested with traffic.
I can think of dozens of examples of the last one. For example, people on Long Island complain about having to go through New York City to get to, well, pretty much anyplace; but they opposed Bob Moses' plan to build a bridge over Long Island Sound that would have helped alleviate that a bit by providing a bypass for traffic headed north.
Similarly, Manhattanites (who by and large hate any vehicle propelled by a motor) successfully opposed Robert Moses' plans to build two expressways across Manhattan. Now they incessantly gripe about street-level congestion caused by traffic headed to and from the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. But any time the idea of building an expressway is revisited, they vigorously and vociferously oppose it.
It's all comes down to people not wanting to accept the old adage, "You can't have your cake and eat it, too," in my opinion.
-Rich
