Well, there's a TINY little hole in your logic here...
Scale of distance is the only difference. Either you support the system or you don't. I don't: I either drive to jobs (charging for mileage) or I pass on them, rather than take part in the police state that is todays air system. You have the very same choices. The argument eveyone is making here is that it is too much of an inconvenience (financial or otherwise), *not* to fly. Sorry, but that's just pure self-serving BS.
For one, Flying can easily be a requirement, not an option. But that's besides the point here. The real point is that some Super-JAT could (5 years from now when there are ubiquitous highway checkpoints) argue that "walking from NYC to Boston may be difficult but it IS possible". Or of course (after Tenent's vision for the internet is realized) "You could simply Fedex those files, you don't need to use the internet" ...and so on...it get silly after this though. -TD