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Do you care to elaborate? If someone is willing to pay the additional price to get more personal space why is that bad? This doesn't necessarily mean that peopl
by ajmurmann 9y ago
Do you care to elaborate? If someone is willing to pay the additional price to get more personal space why is that bad? This doesn't necessarily mean that people will be kept from flying altogether. If this is successful airlines will likely just increase capacity rather than keeping potential customers on the ground.
- thedarkproject 9y agoI agree with you mostly, but I would like to bring up the ecological concern of flying with empty seats. It increases the avg carbon footprint per passenger.
- dnh44 9y agoI assume this is only in the case of a non fully booked flight. But I didn't read the article.
- MIKarlsen 9y agoI think the concept of letting people with enough money get to do whatever they want is a bit unsettling.
- strictnein 9y ago> "Do whatever they want" People with enough money can already just buy a second seat or pay for business/first class. This actually opens up increased comfort options for those with less money.
- shostack 9y agoThe problem historically is that these increased options tend to go hand in hand with efforts to crappify the experience for those not paying extra in an attempt to "encourage" them to pay more. See "economy plus" ie. "Cram in more seats to shrink seat space except for a few that will stay the same that we can charge more for". This is also a part of the game to avoid listing high fares on affiliate travel sites but then charging more through upcharges like this in an attempt to mask overall increases to average fare prices.
- pembrook 9y agoSo basically you find market economics is unsettling? If it makes you feel any better there's not a single flourishing command economy anywhere in the world right now. China, Cuba, etc. are all moving towards market systems for a reason. If history has taught us anything, it's that humans will create power gamification in all situations. The market system is the only way to harness those instincts to a somewhat greater good.
- kaonashi 9y agoYes. Markets are a means, not an ends. When markets undermine basic fairness, they are gross.
- spuz 9y agoSo are you against business and first class? Without those customers paying 10x the economy fare, average folk like you and me would never be able to afford to fly around the world. You should be very careful when deciding what kind of markets are good and which are "bad".
- kaonashi 9y agoThat's how the financial arrangements work out, but those are quite malleable. Planes are perfectly capable of flying without first class sections.
- spuz 9y agoI think you give markets way less credit than they deserve. Check out http://wonderfulloaf.org http://wonderfulloaf.org and see if you are persuaded.
- kaonashi 9y agoDon't think there's anything wrong with markets per se, but implementation details are important. Markets where some players have considerably more coercive power than others don't tend to produce good outcomes.