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Interesting that HN will generally regard rail travel as a public good that should be subsidized, not during a crisis but every year, by tax payers. Well, in A

Interesting that HN will generally regard rail travel as a public good that should be subsidized, not during a crisis but every year, by tax payers. Well, in America, air travel is our rail. If you go hardline libertarian about this and let them fail, the federal debt might be a bit smaller, at a time when our government can borrow for 0% — but after the crisis your tickets will be much more expensive as competition will have dropped back down to two major carriers that won’t compete on price.

nieve 7y ago
I think a lot of people here would be content with leveling out the massive subsidies. This isn't a situation where the airlines, aerospace companies, and their supporting web of companies aren't getting plenty of direct subsidies, loan guarantees, tax breaks, and so forth already. It sounds like you think it's a zero sum game with the only important metric airline ticket prices? Railways don't offer airline tickets so that formulation neatly does away with them unless we support rail enough for it to grow to something competitive.
- nostromo 7y ago
  Most Americans pay for Amtrak every year and never directly benefit from it. Air travel has been extremely cheap for some time because of competition. Well the competition is about to die and you will be left with one or two choices for most routes. And those carriers will increase costs dramatically. So the question is if you want to offer some small government assistance to keep our infrastructure running, or if you want to double your cost of air travel for the next decade.
  - forkexec 7y ago
    By that "logic," childless individuals shouldn't pay for schools either. Or people who don't have fires shouldn't pay for the fire department. Get a grip and pitch in to the commonwealth rather than repeat the tired, selfish dogma of "F everybody else, I got mine." You can either live in a livable civilization with healthcare, schools, roads, parks and infrastructure, or you can live in a corrupt, broken, third-world banana republic where the stingy rich own everything and pay for nothing.
    - nostromo 7y ago
      You’ve misread my comment completely and seem to be tilting at windmills.
nabla9 7y ago
Air travel is subsidized by every country every year. For example airliners don't pay fuel taxes. Generally any travel subsidy should be implemented as direct ticket subsidy, not as company subsidy or fuel subsidy. This way companies can go bankrupt and be acquired without government interventions. Only exception is to arrange uninterrupted service from bankrupted companies. Government ensure provide that with laws and regulations and emergency loans. As US is more business capitalist than market capitalist system, there is tendency to make decisions where government helps companies directly instead of using market mechanisms to implement these things.

nieve 7y ago

I think a lot of people here would be content with leveling out the massive subsidies. This isn't a situation where the airlines, aerospace companies, and their supporting web of companies aren't getting plenty of direct subsidies, loan guarantees, tax breaks, and so forth already. It sounds like you think it's a zero sum game with the only important metric airline ticket prices? Railways don't offer airline tickets so that formulation neatly does away with them unless we support rail enough for it to grow to something competitive.

nostromo 7y ago
Most Americans pay for Amtrak every year and never directly benefit from it. Air travel has been extremely cheap for some time because of competition. Well the competition is about to die and you will be left with one or two choices for most routes. And those carriers will increase costs dramatically. So the question is if you want to offer some small government assistance to keep our infrastructure running, or if you want to double your cost of air travel for the next decade.
- forkexec 7y ago
  By that "logic," childless individuals shouldn't pay for schools either. Or people who don't have fires shouldn't pay for the fire department. Get a grip and pitch in to the commonwealth rather than repeat the tired, selfish dogma of "F everybody else, I got mine." You can either live in a livable civilization with healthcare, schools, roads, parks and infrastructure, or you can live in a corrupt, broken, third-world banana republic where the stingy rich own everything and pay for nothing.
  - nostromo 7y ago
    You’ve misread my comment completely and seem to be tilting at windmills.

nabla9 7y ago

Air travel is subsidized by every country every year. For example airliners don't pay fuel taxes. Generally any travel subsidy should be implemented as direct ticket subsidy, not as company subsidy or fuel subsidy. This way companies can go bankrupt and be acquired without government interventions. Only exception is to arrange uninterrupted service from bankrupted companies. Government ensure provide that with laws and regulations and emergency loans. As US is more business capitalist than market capitalist system, there is tendency to make decisions where government helps companies directly instead of using market mechanisms to implement these things.