Re-Regulating the Airlines, Part I

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“Did I just read that you are in favor of re-regulating the airlines??!!”

Rarely do I write something that – literally – causes my phone to ring thirty seconds later. This did. I am a person who believes in the marketplace and that smaller government usually equals more effective government.

What could I be thinking?, my friend wondered. 

Just this:  The free market cannot work in an economic endeavor for which a free market does not exist which is certainly the case with airlines. I dislike the airlines, the TSA, the whole air travel experience these days. And, given the current regulatory system, I see no hope for improvement given the status quo. It is time to start thinking "outside the box."

I am old enough to remember airlines before and after de-regulation (which, for the record, I was in favor of).  I don’t like what I see today. The United States, the nation that invented the airplane, invented air traffic control, and most of what makes modern aviation possible, has allowed its airline system to deteriorate to what is approaching third-world status, if we aren’t already there in some cases.  I fear that in five years we will see more bankruptcies and a deteriorating safety record if things do not change. 

Because of the length of this topic, I am going to post in multiple parts.  More to come tomorrow.

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