Archive for April 7th, 2008
“The pound of flesh which I demand..”
We at the Sagamore Journal occasionally find it prudent to gather up some of the many gems we’ve sown and bring them together with a overarching point, valid or not.
As an example, take three previous subjects at random. Let’s say crude oil prices, fat people and the feckless TSA. Now observe:
Runaway jet fuel prices have prompted airlines to evaluate cost-cutting measures. Alaska Airlines recently discovered it could save $10,000/year on fuel simply by removing five magazines per aircraft. What’s more, the company got itself new beverage carts, which – at 20 lb lighter than the old ones – could save upwards of $500,000/year in fuel costs.
Ho ho, now – are we to understand that by cutting a few pounds here and there, air travel could be cheaper? Do you see where I am going with this?
It’s high time the transport of human flesh was conducted on the same basis as any other cargo. You pay by the pound. If you exceed a certain weight or dimension, perhaps you pay double (i.e.: an extra seat). They do it for our luggage already, yes? That’s because of weight and passenger travel should be the same.
I see no reason why the dietary habits or genetic makeup of an obese traveller should cause me to pay extra for a less comfortable airplane ride. The trip itself is what our money pays for; arrival is the assumed and hoped for result. Remember that.
My modest proposal offers greater justice than this current notion that everyone should suffer for the gluttony of a few. It’s not true for differently sized cars at the gas pump and it shouldn’t be true for differently sized people in air travel.
We live not in a socialist commune as the ill-begot TSA would have you believe. This is a cut-throat capitalist machine, for better or worse.
He who chooses to move his 300-pound bulk across the skies should do so at greater personal cost than one who wishes to transport only 150lbs of flesh and bone. That’s economics.
