Oh boy, who doesn’t want higher prices in order to keep the riff-raff out?/s
It took me awhile to catch onto the satire.
“Why did it all change?”
You may as well ask why did SOCIETY all change? It’s doubly ironic, in that today’s adults were the most privileged, pampered, most wealthy kids in the history of Planet Earth. Now they seem all to want to repress everyone else, suppress all behaviors which are in any way different or unique, and delete from society the very privileges they inherited from their parents.
Social historians will be wrestling with this fact centuries from now.
The article seeks to avoid the fact that the decline came =with= regulation and government-supported protectionism and government-supported trade unions. The good days were the during the earlier relatively free market.
A market that airlines figured they could safely kill since they didn’t want a chance at competitors displacing them. And the government claimed to be terrified of looking bad if the US airlines died like the government regulated railroads, besides, it seemed like it’d buy some votes.
By the time “deregulation” (in name only for the most part) came we had already lost the days so fondly recalled. The author’s mind goes from the sixties to post-deregulation while conveniently forgetting how things really were under regulation between the early 70’s and the early 80’s (remember, “deregulation” was so dangerous it had to be phased in from 79 to 85.) Flying in the days of OPEC embargoes, strikes, strict route controls and government subsidies was not the days of comfort and gentility.
1970s type service is still (sort of) available.
But you have to pay for a first-class fare to get it.
I’m unwilling to pay for that service.
Unfortunately, coach class is little more than a cattle car.
So I will drive as much as 8 hours instead of flying.
You’re confused. That Old World air travel you miss so much? It still exists, right here in America: it’s called the private jet. The people who could afford to fly back then are the people who can afford to fly private jets today. Back then, the flying elite looked down on bus travelers the same way private jet passengers look down on commercial flight today.
Commercial airplanes are flying Greyhounds now.
And deregulation wasn’t the cause. You note that they used to charge Neiman Marcus prices, and now deregulation forces them to charge Walmart prices. But retail isn’t regulated, and Neiman Marcus still charges Neiman Marcus prices. But it’s only for the elite.
So here’s the solution: buy your own jet. You get to dress your 23-year-old stewardess however you want. Hell, she’ll sit in your lap if you pay her enough. And you can eat and drink like a king.
Can’t afford it? Then get in the cattle car with the rest of the Great Unwashed.
later