This article questions what is the proper role of the government in a capitalist economy. The government has a role in protecting its citizens from dangerous situations. That is why many industries are regulated. The government is trying to protect the consumers. This seems to be a case where governments have gone too far. They were acting in what they thought were the best interests of consumers, but it has gotten to the point where the consumers and the industries are both being hurt. The governments should have begun immediately testing if travel was safe and if the grounding of flight has to be continued. They should have also looked at its effect on the airline industry, which is already struggling to make money.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Deal Is Set to Reopen Air Travel in Europe
For the past week, air travel to, from, and around Europe has been shut down, due to the ash cloud from an erupting volcano in Iceland. The European governments have shut down airspace for fear that flying in or near the cloud could damage the planes to the point that they would be inoperable in the sky. This shut down has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for the airline companies and left thousands of people stranded around the world. The threat of the cloud has also reached North America as airports in Newfoundland have begun to be shut down. Many airline companies have flown test flights to demonstrate that the government acted too drastically without proper analysis of the situation.
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4 comments:
Wow. The airline companies really didn't need this. As far the the role of government, in this situation I think it is important for the government to protect its citizens. At least they're not tapping into peoples' phones.
As evidence of newspaper headlines around the world, major commercial airlines have been struggling to stay alive and this will only compound the problem. However, unlike airlines other problems, this one seems to have a definitive fix, TIME! With time this too shall pass. However, one thing i found interesting was how safety was discussed in this article. It is my belief that the safety of the passengers should never be in doubt, no matter the circumstances. You need not look far for an example of when safety was ignored, Poland's President died but a few days ago!!
I read an interesting article about how airlines really wouldn't be hurt that bad economically by this disaster since most people will choose to reschedule their flights at a later time. Interestingly, the article also noted that investing in European car rental companies for a short period would be a good idea for obvious reasons.
The real people being affected by this is the people who are stranded. One group who are affected is the WWE. They were on tour in Europe when this happened and they were supposed to be back in the states already. On Monday, the wrestlers were supposed to be in attendence at a live show in the U.S., but since they couldn't fly back they were stuck with using the wrestlers that were already in the states. They fully refunded the people who attended the show since most of the RAW talent was stranded in Europe. Over time, they will all slowly make it back over.
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