3 ms·
> There are probably a bit too few customer and worker protections, but on the whole, airline deregulation shows just how bad command economies are at planning
by dools 3y ago
> There are probably a bit too few customer and worker protections, but on the whole, airline deregulation shows just how bad command economies are at planning and allocating resources.
I would say that it demonstrates that, where competition exists, deregulation can achieve some pretty good results. It's worth noting that consumers can choose which airline to fly every time they fly and the cost of switching is non-existent (absent loyalty programs which is why they're called loyalty programs).
It's also worth noting that since airlines are pretty critical infrastructure, when there's an economic downturn and the government bails them out, the government is essentially subsidising the discounts of the previous 10 years and generally doesn't do it for the very small airlines that aren't too big to fail so it's also still a bit government-ish.
- arcticbull 3y agoNot to mention the government is still actively involved through programs like Essential Air Service [1] It wasn't fully deregulated and left alone, some aspects were deregulated. As usual people like to bucket government policy as black and white but in reality it's usually somewhere in the middle. [1] https://www.transportation.gov/policy/aviation-policy/small-community-rural-air-service/essential-air-service https://www.transportation.gov/policy/aviation-policy/small-...
- ls612 3y agoAirlines have also had really shitty luck as an industry, that isn't high margin to begin with, facing two exogenous near death experiences in 20 years with 9/11 and Covid.
- faeriechangling 3y agoAirlines are just a terrible business. Massive fixed costs, massive variable costs, tons of regulation, tons of competition, constant bankruptcies, and the outlook for the industry only gets more grim. COVID is just a 1 in a hundred year event, terrorist attacks happened before and after 9/11. It’s a miracle that airlines are as functional as they are. People REALLY like flying.
- flatline 3y agoThe TSA is definitely the worst innovation of the last 20 years. Additional to that, lost luggage, missed or delayed flights, expensive changes - and I will still happily get on a plane without a second thought whereas I may have abandoned some other industry over far less. The ability to fly is truly miraculous. For $500 or less I can travel most of the way across two continents at non-peak times, and for about a grand I can cover most of the globe. Even poor people can scrape together that kind of money every once in a while.
- swivelmaster 3y agoI'm not sure people LIKE flying, it's just the best of a lot of mediocre alternatives depending on the distance you're traveling and the time you're willing to allocate. I've certainly had a few airline experience that ended in my wishing I had just driven from A to B because delays and the general inconvenience of it all meant that it would have been faster AND cheaper to drive, but of course we didn't know that when we booked the flight.
- dehrmann 3y ago> when there's an economic downturn and the government bails them out It's more that the government subsidizes their lack of resiliency in a back-handed way. This might not be so bad because markets are usually short-sighted and fail at this, so the only way for it to exist in a market system is for the government to pay for it. This is what the Farm Bill does. It subsidizes food production because people starve when markets are too efficient.