How dare airlines make a profit by fulfilling a need! How dare they ration supply in a time of high demand by changing the price! Whoever heard of such a thing? Why, it’s almost as if they were tryong to maximize satisfaction at both ends. Everyone knows they should maximize the satisfaction of one passenger—whoever happens to be eriting an article later—at the expense of everyone else.
If you think it’s “unfair” or “exploitative” blame God or nature. The airline didn’t make the weather. Otherwise, assuage your sense of justice by not buying a ticket. On the bright side this is refreshingly frank. If only they’d always admit they prefer some undefined state of fairness to efficiency. Usually they pretend their policies are more efficient in addition to following some novel form of fairness.
People react as people react. It’s up to the airline to choose what to do for the sake of its perceived appearance or its financial condition or for the sake of whatever flower is blooming in Japan right now for that matter. I’m not even sure Reich is asking that anybody force the airline, he’s only commenting about how it looks. He might be feeling a bit guilty about being rich enough to get the ticket and thus shutting out poorer people.