Fly Me To The Moon?

Actually, were I needing to fly via American Airlines, I should be saying "fly me to anywhere."

Last week's days upon days of American Airlines flight cancellations certainly was a debacle. I wonder if American will change its slogan to "We know why you don't fly"--or "We know why you fly--NOT!"

American Airlines, however, is not solely to blame for the mess it created. The Federal Aviation Administration bears most of the responsibility. However, my pointing a finger at the FAA is not for the same reason others want you to do likewise.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the FAA had determined as far back as 2003 that the electrical wiring bundles near the main wheel well of all MD-80s needed to be checked--indeed, the FAA suspected problems as early as 2001. However, no directive to inspect for or correct the potential problem was made till 2006, and even then, the FAA gave the airlines another year-and-a-half to comply!

The rabid free-marketeers will tell you that this shows the stupidity of government regulations, but they are wrong. The real problem here is putting people who do not believe in government in charge of running the government. Such people have NO incentive to make government work. They have EVERY incentive to make government fail, and in the most spectacular ways possible. When people stop believing in government's ability to help them, they'll stop relying on the government, and the government will eventually go away.

At such time, the free-marketeers can run their money-making schemes any way they want, and the rest of us will have no recourse when we are injured by their doing so.

You want another example? How about FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina? Maybe Dubya knew exactly what he was saying when he said, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job." Maybe he was praising him for messing up FEMA to the point that FEMA could be made to go away forever. Thus the relatively paltry sums spent on running FEMA could be diverted into the Iraq War effort, or more likely, into the pockets of Dubya's buddies in the construction industry.

Nah. I can't give Dubya credit for that much intelligence. Dick Cheney, however . . .

In any event, the lesson is that if you allow people who don't like government to run the government, you've put the fox in charge of the hen house. So don't be surprised when you run out of eggs, let alone chicken dinners.