Airsickness

I haven't flown a whole lot in the last several years. Mostly because I haven't felt a whole lot of need to be elsewhere, but it also didn't help that I kept getting pulled aside for additional screening in the first several years after 9/11 (it only made me miss my flight once, but I still didn't appreciate being treated like a criminal).

The point being that I haven't exactly been in a position to notice most of the problems pointed out in this article from the Washington Monthly, but I can't say as any of it surprises me.

Actually, I think this article misses the two biggest factors in what has gone on. The first is the security theater that is making getting on such a hassle, but which has yet to show any indication of being able to stop a serious attack (it doesn't set you back to note that all of the airline threats we've heard about have been stopped by passengers in the air?).

The second is actually alluded to in the article (unintentionally, I'm pretty sure), which is the growth of executive plane service. You know, those planes that carry the obscenely rich or well-connected that don't use the normal terminals and airlines? Where the article alludes to it is in talking about how some expensive service subsidizes other service. Well, those people who would pay for the very expensive seats are, increasingly, just avoiding the airlines entirely. They get to avoid the security theater (hence, all those Congressmen who tell us that it's for our own good, but who never see the problems), plus, they don't buy the really expensive seats that would subsidize the cattle class for the rest of us.

If you want to look into this problem some more, the book Perfectly Legal has a whole chapter on how this problem has sprung up. It also has a whole host of other info that will get your blood boiling, as you see who the real "welfare queens" are.

Oh, and one irony I almost forgot to bring in. The movie Up in the Air is about a "downsizing specialist" who flies all over the country to fire people, and help them get started again. What made me think of it was 1) his goal in life was to collect ten million frequent flyer miles (so he was always "Up in the Air") and 2) the film was made in St Louis. The irony about St Louis is that it is one of the places the article talks about getting squeezed out of service. So Mr Clooney wouldn't be able to talk to the people there, because flying in is, it seems, becoming prohibitively difficult.

ps: Thanks to Meteor Blades, on kos, whose article pointed me towards the Washington Monthly piece.