What’s up With the ‘Open Letter to All Airline Customers’?

What can we do to push the other half into bankruptcy too? Wouldn’t it be awesome to clean the airline gene pool a bit?

I believe that pushing the other half into bankruptcy would cause foreign companies to take their place, and eliminate more U.S. jobs.  Do you really wish to damage more of the U.S. economy?  It is time we customers stopped complaining about prices, which are based on the price of oil increasing from 15% to 40% of the cost of a ticket.  Instead we should complain about those things within the airlines’ control such as being held on a runway for hours, etc.

If provision of airline services by US companies is not something that we can provide at a comparative advantage, then yes, I’d rather that those jobs be destroyed and the people in them find something to do that they do better than provide airline services.  I do not know whether or not we have a comparative advantage at airline services, or not.  If we do, then we don’t need to worry about keeping the jobs.  They’ll stay.  If we don’t, then any government intervention to ensure those jobs stay hurts us all.

Think of it this way: Imagine you’re a lawyer that makes $1000/hr and you want to add a deck to your house.  It costs you $100/hr to hire someone to do that for you.  Now, you could do it yourself, and it just so happens that you’re very good at installing decks.  But to do it, you’d have to take off of work for a couple of days.

Should you do it yourself or hire the other person?  Obviously the answer is hire the other person.  There’s no point in giving up $1000/hr in order to save $100/hr.  And it doesn’t matter if that person who you hire isn’t as good as you are.  You’re still better off sending the work to someone else, so that you can focus on the work that you do best.

This example shows comparative advantage.  The lawyer has a comparative advantage at doing his job as opposed to the job building the deck.  That job he has a comparative disadvantage.  Keep the job that has a comparative advantage and outsource the job that has a comparative disadvantage.

The same rule applies to the airlines.  If we have a comparative advantage at providing airline service, then keep the jobs here.  If, on the other hand, we have a comparative disadvantage at providing airline services, then let someone else do those jobs.  The people who lose those jobs will then be available to jobs for which our country has a comparative advantage.  Making both themselves and all of us better off.

The point is that the straight forward answer of “keep the jobs” is not always the one that produces the most wealth for everyone involved.

The leaders of the “major” airlines simply have had no idea how to ever make money in a deregulated environment. Finger pointing is the last defense of the incompetent. We can only expect things to worsen for all of us dependent upon air carriers. read more at http://www.ThePHoenixPrinciple.com

Is it necessary to have an oil tanker cargo from Arabia to change ownership 5 to 6 times before it reaches an American port? What is the difference for an American business to pay “protection” from an outside entity to be in a safe enviroment to engage in business. Pay for your “protection” and simply add the cost to your product.

Do speculators add anything to the product. Sure make a lot of Doe and invest it in Monaco life.  As I see it speculators are nothing more than “legal hold-up artists”.

Since my experience on foreign airlines is consistently less offensive, less expensive and more convenient than it is on US airlines, I would embrace a foreign takeover.

If Emirates wants to operate between Seattle and San Francisco, I’d be first in line to buy a ticket.