Regulate in Favor of Me

Seeing this today, I was reminded that, while I generally oppose invasive government regulation, I do favor re-regulating the airline industry.

Now, I don't say this necessarily for altruistic purposes. I actually think that the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 was good for consumers. Sure, there are a ton of bad things with air travel today, but air travel is a LOT more accessible to an average member of the middle class than prior to deregulation act.

(On a sidenote, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend Thomas K McGraw's Prophets of Regulation, which won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for History. McGraw profiles four intellectuals who are incredibly important in the history of industry regulation in the U.S., one of whom is Alfred E. Kahn, who oversaw airline deregulation under President Carter. On a side-sidenote, I once again reiterate my position that Carter was not really that liberal. On a side-side-sidenote, I loved my trip to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in January.)

But, anyhow, for purely selfish reasons, I want re-regulation. It might hurt the average guy, but, on this topic, I say, screw the average guy. More expensive flights, so be it. If it were up to me, we'd take all of those planes with three seats on the left and three seats on the right of the aisle, I would mandate that they have to replace them with bigger seats, so only two seats on each side of the aisle. (See photo.) I'd mandate meals on every flight longer two hours. I'd ban charging extra for checking bags. I'd ban overhead bins (there are few things in life I hate more than people who hold up flight boarding with putting their hugeass bags in overhead bins). (See photo.)

I also favor massive, widespread use of eminent domain to double or triple the number of runways in the country. NIMBY be damned. Boo hoo - "I lost my house and got fair compensation" - how awful. Our delays are all caused by the fact that runways are so tightly scheduled that weather problems anywhere in the country disrupt the entire system - it's nuts.