http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/16/amtrak.guns/index.html
This is insane, they threaten to cut Amtrak's funding if they do not allow firearms in checked luggage, but they made no provisions to implement this program. I wonder what lobby group has their hands in the pockets of this legislation. The NRA comes to mind, but so does the airline industry. What a strange, bizarre world we live in.
How can mass transit ever be viable if they start pulling strings like this. The airline industry is on its last legs. The insane, hysteric based notion that people want to actually fly after the hell they have to go through trying to get through security to get on a plane. Not to mention that the vast amount of Europeans and others are not wanting to come to our fair land any more because they do not feel like being treated like common criminals. It has an adverse affect on tourism, it has a adverse affect on business. I believe our fair neighbours to the North are thanking us for the increase in revenue. Not to mention the fact that the airline industry is soon to be a thing of the past because limited amounts of oil exist. And, if the conflict in the Middle East does not get any better the price of oil is going to sky rocket.
The firearms ban has only been in effect since 9/11. In effect, the legislation is to repeal a tacked-on rule, which didn't (and still doesn't) actually have any provisions for actually checking for firearms.
Also, the airline industry is currently crippled because of more than just security. When I traveled to New York City, just a couple of years after 9/11, it actually wasn't that big of a deal. Yeah, there's more security. Yeah, they go through your carry-on bag. Yeah, it takes longer. It's inconvenient, and it's certainly not helping the airline industry's cause, but it's also not the end of the world.
Like I said, the security issues regarding planes is not the only reason they're having issues. Fuel costs have raised ticket costs, which forces people, who are themselves tight on money thanks to the fuel costs, to chose alternative forms of transportation. The current economy has left more people finding cheaper things to do for vacations, if they're taking vacations at all, and cheaper ways of getting to vacation spots when they are going, because flying is expensive.
And, if the conflict in the Middle East does not get any better the price of oil is going to sky rocket.
And that is the prime example of how much control the Middle East actually has over us, where our very economy is tied to how much OPEC wants to charge us for the oil, because they know that we are utterly dependent on it, currently. So, when there's a lot of conflict in the Middle East, we pay for it in the price of oil. Developing alternative fuel sources, not only for transportation, but for everything that requires resources imported from a particular region of the world, and not necessarily completely eliminating things like gasoline, but instead diversifying the things that are available to us, are what will save us in the long run.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge
Also, the airline industry is currently crippled because of more than just security.
You know, I still don't understand how airlines found themselves in such financial trouble.
I have 5 days of vacation. I don't want to spend 2+ of it driving. I want to go from Point A to Point B. I want to do so in less than 3-12 hours. The only way I can do this is on a plane. That's the only way. No other means of transportation are available to me, at all, to meet my need. None. The airline industry has a monopoly on travel convenience and, somehow, they can't profit from this?
I don't get it. The airline industry is failing and they probably deserve it. I also doubt it has much, if anything, to do with security.
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My little brother is a pilot for United Airlines. He has turned into a total union hack. I can barely stand to talk to him anymore. He told me once that "the unions did not want to kill the golden goose. They just want to squeeze i by the neck until it shits out every last golden egg." They've managed to do that and pretty much kill the goose too.
Why would anyone invest capital in a capital intensive industry where there was no hope of profits and return on investment? Whenever an airline starts doing well its labor force rakes it over the coals and drives it into bankruptcy (again).
Just to correct your economics, saying that airlines have a monopoly on rapid travel convenience is like saying that corn farmers have a monopoly on corn. Both are highly competitive industries. Corn farmers exist in a market that economists often describe as "pure competition" because none of the individual farmers are large enough to exercise any market control over prices through such measures as withholding supply. There are less players in the airline industry and in some regional markets certain players are so dominant that they can exercise some control over ticket prices (at least in the short-run), but the industry is competitive enough where it would probably be inaccurate to describe it as oligopoly let alone monopoly. It is very price competitve and has been since it was de-regulated beginning with Carter and completed by Reagan.
In real terms, airline tickets are a huge bargain. When I went to prep school in the early 70's a round-trip airline ticket from Wyoming to New Hampshire (Boston) cost about $500 in 1970's dollars. That was a lot of money in those days. Ticket prices were heavily regulated so the prices hardly changed over the 4 year period. When I sent my daughter to the same prep school, in the early 2000s, ticket prices were a little more variable but they basically fluctuated between $430 and $620 in 2000 dollars. Essentially the same trip cost the same in nominal dollars 30 years later despite the enormous inflation and corresponding devaluation of the dollar during that period. Competition in the airline industry has been a huge boon for consumers and a rough go for airlines. They definately DO NOT enjoy monopoly pricing power.
I find security to be the least troubling part of flying. Yes, I hate being herded around like a sheep and being forced to take off my shoes and not being able to pack a safety razor in my carry-on. And I especially hate the political correctness that has caused everybody to be treated as equally guilty when everybody knows that 80 year old grandmas don't blow up airplanes. But, it is the incredibly crappy and unreliable service that I object to. Like you, I fly because I want to get somewhere in a hurry. But they way airlines operate these days there is no guarantee or even high-degree of likelihood that any particular flight is going to go smoothly. As often as not, I end up delayed or being re-routed and arriving exhasted after an extremely stressful experience. This is the down-side of extreme price competition.
When's the last time you flew? Because I've flown recently, and the security isn't bad. Yes, it takes a little time to get through, but it's a whole lot less time than it takes to load everyone onto the airplane. And if you know what's expected when you go through security, it tends to go a lot faster and is without issue.
~C
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