Gail, Jolly good article.
When widgets are not moving across the counter you have a "Sale!" When airline tickets aren't selling - you ought to have a bunch of bargains to fill the seats. I understand they have increased prices on a "temporary" basis. Meantime, a lot of people have been fired thereby saving the airlines the cost of pensions and other goodies long promised to the people who have worked perhaps decades - to be dropped in the dust without pensions or severance pay. At the height of the Mad Cow scare in England, Sainsburys had a mass of beef unsold. So, they had a beef sale with 50% off and the shelves cleared. Yet, why should they have a sale when all that lovely government money is heading their way? Harry -------------------------------------------------------- Gail wrote: sales >Background: >(Excerpt from an article forwarded to me today) > From Slate magazine, an article by Steven E. Landsberg subtitled "The > airline bailout enriches stockholders at the expense of taxpayers:" >"Let's be clear about what this bailout will do for the flying public: >exactly nothing. It won't keep any planes in the air that wouldn't have >been there anyway. Airplanes are flown when it's profitable to fly them, >and they're not flown when it's not profitable to fly them. Giving cash to >the airlines doesn't change the profitability of any given flight, so it >doesn't affect any decision about which flights to offer. <snip> >So, what does the airline bailout accomplish? One thing and one thing only >it enriches the millions of people who own airline stocks at the expense >of the millions of others who don't. And in the process, it undermines the >very principles that we uphold and our enemies want to destroy. > >Hypothetical exam question: > >Is Landsberg right? If so, why are governments not bailing out the >airlines by making it less expensive for people to fly? Why is there no >vociferous lobby for reducing ticket prices, perhaps through a voucher >system temporarily reducing the costs of flying? Wouldn't this be a >healthier form of bailout both for the airlines and the public than just >giving cash to the airlines? Wouldn't a reduction in ticket prices to the >consumer be more likely to maintain jobs and lead to a resumption of >normal airline activity? Are resources that might be used against >terrorism being needlessly wasted by a straight "bailout" of the airlines? >Discuss. > >Regards, > >Gail > ****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 352-2242 *******************************
