Do you think its fair to bailout the airlines socializing the losses & then privatizing their profits?

Question

The fully-worded Q is this : Do you think its fair to bailout the airlines socializing their losses in bad times & then privatizing their profits in the good times? Just how do you die-hard libertarian capitalists propose to avoid it?

Q is intentionally framed to provoke real thoughts!

Answer 1

No. Avoiding gravity is not a human right.

Libertarian capitalists didn't create the problem, nor would they.

Businesses that cannot function efficiently in a free market need to die. So do governments that don't function efficiently.

'Nuff said!

Answer 2

Fact Check!!!

Nobody bailed out any airlines.  Congress allocated about $9 billion but most it was never actually given to any of them.  Its still sitting in a bank account collecting interest to this day.

There were about $750M worth of payments in the immediate wake of 9/11 but that was mostly just used to keep cash on hand so people's paychecks would not bounce.  The rest just sort of evaporated into some government bank account somewhere.

As for fair:  No I do not believe it would be fair to subsidize one company at the expense of another.  This is a free-market economy.  Right now there is too much capacity and not enough demand, so someone is going to go belly-up.  Soon.

Right after 9/11 however, there was a real danger that EVERY airline was going to go out of business.  The public interest in airlines existence goes far beyond going to visit grandma over the holidays.  The military transports all its troops domestically on airlines and there is even a law that says there must be an airline that flies to an airport within 150 miles of EVERY resident of the lower 48.  This is referred to as Essential Air Service and it is an important part of our national airspace system.  If something were to happen out in BFE, somebody important can get there in a reasonable amount of time.

The reaction to 9/11 was primarily done to protect the EAS concept.  For instance, if Northwest (Or UsAir, or United, or anybody else) had gone out of business, all the EAS contracts they fulfill would be gone and thousands of people would not have been able to access the National Airspace System.  United is primarily known as flying into ORD, DEN, and so forth, but many of their regional carriers fly under a United banner to EAS-served cities.  Protecting United from bankruptcy in that case would have been important.

Today, this is less of a concern.  If a legacy carrier went out of business, there would be another one available to pick up the slack and take over the EAS routes.  But in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 there was no guarantee that every airline was not going to simply go under, leaving nobody else to do that flying.

Answer 3

hahahaha. what the h**l's fair got to do with it? hahahahahaha

Answer 4

fair? define that term? nothing is black and white and once you've seen thru the looking glass you know how the real world works.