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I don't agree with this writer's take on the AA incident. Any airline has a right to ask you to exit their plane, just like a taxi driver can ask you to leave

I don't agree with this writer's take on the AA incident. Any airline has a right to ask you to exit their plane, just like a taxi driver can ask you to leave his taxi. They owe you a refund, and maybe compensation, but they don't OWE you transportation. If you were getting into a taxi, and the driver (for some reason) determined that s/he couldn't take you to your destination, they have every right to ask you to exit the vehicle. Other than some kind of life-threatening emergency, there is no scenario I can imagine where you could be in the right by refusing to exit the vehicle and insisting they take you anyway. If you did refuse, force-able removal is the logical next step. Writer went on to suggest that racism was somehow involved, which is where I gave up on reading the article.

thefounder 8y ago
You miss the point. To make your analogy right imagine there is must be single taxi company operating in your area and it decides not to take your order anymore because they don't make much profit from your trip. You need to wait several hours until their queue clears out and then you have to pray not to be outbid by someone else. Of course the company decides what orders to take but you have to ask yourself why your government allows this kind of monopolies. After all capitalism promised to fix the worst flaws of commusims(i.e lack of competition/choices).
- testrun 8y ago
  'After all capitalism promised ..'. Nope, capitalism does not promise anything. It is not a political system as the same as communism. Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
  - woodandsteel 8y ago
    The promoters of capitalism do most definitely promise that. And what is your position on the issue?
    - geezerjay 8y ago
      > The promoters of capitalism do most definitely promise that. No, they don't. That's just a poorly made up strawman. At best what capitalism proponents defend is that it provides a system where products and services are provides efficiently to the public due to a combination of free enterprise, private ownership of the means of production, and competition.
      - woodandsteel 8y ago
        And a large part of their argument is that this all works vastly better than socialism.
  - yellowbuilding 8y ago
    >Capitalism is not a political system That’s why they say! And that claim is the target of it’s most long-lived detractors. The subtitle of Karl Marx’s Capital is, of course A Crtitique Of Political Economy. The girth of Marx’s contributions to politics and economics were in showing how the two are inseparable. Of course, you’re invited to disagree, but you’ve got your work cut out for you.
  - watwut 8y ago
    Capitalism is definitely not like communism. However, people who push for it are promising things and argue by what we all gain by having capitalism. Not just that, they use past economic successes of capitalism and past economic failures as argument why we should keep things as capitalist as possible. They also argue by some moral values and so did communist proponents. Capitalism has political component and is dependent on laws and its enforcement. It is also ideology. None of it makes it bad thing inherently, the past economic successes of capitalism are real, through we really should learn from cases where it cause trouble, so that we keep our capitalism not going to excess.
- lliamander 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure lack of consumer choice was not the worst flaw of communism.
n4r9 8y ago
> Writer went on to suggest that racism was somehow involved That's a crude misreading of the actual claim: > They apologised after ... the realistic threat to ban United Airlines from China because of the racial undertones underlying that incident. It was about image. Police officers dragging a bloody and seemingly unconscious man of minority ethnicity has extremely clear racial undertones, regardless of whether the intentions of the officers or airline staff were actually racist.
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  not OP, but my reading of the term "racial undertones" is that there is racism just under the surface, ie covert rather than overt racism.
zaarn 8y ago
In germany the taxi driver cannot actually ask you to leave. They have a transport duty (Beförderungspflicht, PBefG) by law unless 1) you can't pay or they would have to drive longer than allowed by law, 2) they can't transport you to the destination in a taxi or 3) some higher cause prevents transport (snow storm, traffic jam, etc.). To my knowledge, airlines do fall under that and a german airline cannot legally kick you out of a flight unless any of the conditions above are met.
newsgremlin 8y ago
As I understand, it was AA's fault that they had to eject the passenger because of over-booking, often practiced so that they can minimize the loss if someone doesn't show up. Clearly consumer rights need to be improved so this practice ceases. It's another case of a company that needs to be forced to do the right thing.
anth_anm 8y ago
an airliner is not the same as a taxi. One is mass transport. The writer didn't suggest racism was involved. They suggested China was upset about it and that would cost UA money.

thefounder 8y ago

You miss the point. To make your analogy right imagine there is must be single taxi company operating in your area and it decides not to take your order anymore because they don't make much profit from your trip. You need to wait several hours until their queue clears out and then you have to pray not to be outbid by someone else. Of course the company decides what orders to take but you have to ask yourself why your government allows this kind of monopolies. After all capitalism promised to fix the worst flaws of commusims(i.e lack of competition/choices).

testrun 8y ago
'After all capitalism promised ..'. Nope, capitalism does not promise anything. It is not a political system as the same as communism. Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
- woodandsteel 8y ago
  The promoters of capitalism do most definitely promise that. And what is your position on the issue?
  - geezerjay 8y ago
    > The promoters of capitalism do most definitely promise that. No, they don't. That's just a poorly made up strawman. At best what capitalism proponents defend is that it provides a system where products and services are provides efficiently to the public due to a combination of free enterprise, private ownership of the means of production, and competition.
    - woodandsteel 8y ago
      And a large part of their argument is that this all works vastly better than socialism.
- yellowbuilding 8y ago
  >Capitalism is not a political system That’s why they say! And that claim is the target of it’s most long-lived detractors. The subtitle of Karl Marx’s Capital is, of course A Crtitique Of Political Economy. The girth of Marx’s contributions to politics and economics were in showing how the two are inseparable. Of course, you’re invited to disagree, but you’ve got your work cut out for you.
- watwut 8y ago
  Capitalism is definitely not like communism. However, people who push for it are promising things and argue by what we all gain by having capitalism. Not just that, they use past economic successes of capitalism and past economic failures as argument why we should keep things as capitalist as possible. They also argue by some moral values and so did communist proponents. Capitalism has political component and is dependent on laws and its enforcement. It is also ideology. None of it makes it bad thing inherently, the past economic successes of capitalism are real, through we really should learn from cases where it cause trouble, so that we keep our capitalism not going to excess.
lliamander 8y ago
I'm pretty sure lack of consumer choice was not the worst flaw of communism.

n4r9 8y ago

> Writer went on to suggest that racism was somehow involved That's a crude misreading of the actual claim: > They apologised after ... the realistic threat to ban United Airlines from China because of the racial undertones underlying that incident. It was about image. Police officers dragging a bloody and seemingly unconscious man of minority ethnicity has extremely clear racial undertones, regardless of whether the intentions of the officers or airline staff were actually racist.

beaconstudios 8y ago
not OP, but my reading of the term "racial undertones" is that there is racism just under the surface, ie covert rather than overt racism.

zaarn 8y ago

In germany the taxi driver cannot actually ask you to leave. They have a transport duty (Beförderungspflicht, PBefG) by law unless 1) you can't pay or they would have to drive longer than allowed by law, 2) they can't transport you to the destination in a taxi or 3) some higher cause prevents transport (snow storm, traffic jam, etc.). To my knowledge, airlines do fall under that and a german airline cannot legally kick you out of a flight unless any of the conditions above are met.

newsgremlin 8y ago

As I understand, it was AA's fault that they had to eject the passenger because of over-booking, often practiced so that they can minimize the loss if someone doesn't show up. Clearly consumer rights need to be improved so this practice ceases. It's another case of a company that needs to be forced to do the right thing.

anth_anm 8y ago

an airliner is not the same as a taxi. One is mass transport. The writer didn't suggest racism was involved. They suggested China was upset about it and that would cost UA money.