"Inconsequential Bureaucrats?" Try Flying Without Them


February 13, 2012
By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNEWS.com

“I’ll work to try to make DC as inconsequential in your life as I can.”

With that promise, Texas Governor Rick Perry achieved lift-off for a presidential campaign that took flight in a blaze of glory but never quite fired its booster rockets.

I thought about Perry the other day while aboard a United Airlines flight from Phoenix to San Francisco. As I was traveling in the West, all the surviving Republican presidential candidates were in Washington, DC, at C-PAC, the conservative political Mecca where right wing faithful annually come to renew their vows to “free market solutions” as the answer to most of the nation’s problems.

As a little exercise, I began listing all the ways that government was involved and “consequential” for the two hour trip I was taking.

Hours before my aircraft was scheduled to leave the gate I download my boarding pass on the Internet, a convenience made possible because a Defense Department agency played the point role in creating the worldwide web.

Also, my reservation was protected because a federal agency oversees traveler rights, such as a new one that lets you change your mind and get all your money back if you cancel your reservation within 24 hours of making it. Because of federally-enforced consumer rights I don’t have to worry about that guy in 12F lighting up a cigarette, or being kicked off the flight without compensation because the airline overbooked the available seats.

My trip to the airport was by taxi, with car and driver both licensed by the city of Phoenix. When we arrived at Phoenix SkyHarbor Airport we operated within rules set by the publicly owned and operated Phoenix Airport Authority. Those rules regulate taxi traffic and fares, avoiding the taxi mayhem you often find when arriving in many foreign countries.

The airport itself was built and operates using taxpayer dollars and it’s managed by what some would call “government bureaucrats.” The security, medical, fire, sanitation and other personnel who keep the airport humming 24 hours a day all draw government pay checks. So do those who issue and manage leases for those privately-owned stores and shops that make traveling a more pleasant experience.

About those restaurants in the terminals. Next time you sit down for a beer or burger check behind the cash register. The restaurant is there to serve you because government health inspectors consider it sanitary and its food handlers worthy of licenses.

TSA employes who check our bags and bodies are federal workers, along with those who work in the control tower, making sure landings and takeoffs don’t become dangerous free-for-alls. The radio frequencies they use for traffic control are publicly owned airwaves. The government also owns those sophisticated guidance systems.

Okay, now we’re airborne. The pilots are certified for competence by a government agency that checks them out often to see that they still are up to the job of landing on dark and stormy nights. The flight attendants all must undergo serious safety training. If it weren't required for safety considerations, flight attendants likely would be replaced by vending machines.

Federal law requires those seat belts, under seat life vests, overhead oxygen masks, floor lighting that shows you the nearest exist when cabin lights fail—and a host of other passenger safety features.

Federal law requires that the planes themselves must be re-certified after so many hours of flying time. If some aircraft, somewhere, shows a flaw, such as a faulty black box, the FAA often reins in all similar aircraft for safety checks and equipment or design changes if needed.

I’m not finished with my list, but I’m running out of space.

All of this could still take place, of course, without government having a hand in it. We can imagine a “market-based” solution to just about everything I’ve discussed here.

True believers would argue that without government, airlines would incorporate all of the safety and convenience the airline passenger world requires just because the airline business is competitive. Poorly maintained planes would have accidents and no one would fly that airline any more. Poor crew training would drive customers to airlines with better crew training. Those who trample on consumer protections would pay a heavy price in bad publicity and decreased demand.

Airports could be built and managed by private investors. Private companies could manage control towers. Taxi and bus businesses would succeed or fail based on market forces.

But....would you want to take your chances in a world where all interests were for-profit and no one’s job was exclusively dedicated to keeping the airline industry fair, safe and competitive for the benefit of public use? Not me.

Each and every regulation, license, consumer protection and health safety topic I’ve discussed was placed there to deal with a problem the market didn’t solve on its own. Get rid of them and it’s almost guaranteed that all those old problems would reemerge.

And that’s the case with most industries and services where government now plays a role. Capitalism without speed limits turns into runaway greed, monopoly and the abuse of financial power. It’s happened time and again in our history with frightful consequences. Look no further than what banking, finance and the mortgage industry has done to cripple the world economy when the regulatory reins were let loose. We’re still trying to clean up that wreckage, and will be for some time to come.

I’m in San Francisco now. Moving through this beautiful taxpayer financed terminal on a high tech taxpayer financed People Mover. A pleasant and safe journey has drawn me here to spend some money with privately owned hotels, restaurants, shops, transportation, tourist attractions and entertainment centers.

A lot of government was involved in getting me here. I wouldn’t consider any of it “inconsequential.”

(Joe Rothstein can be reached at joe@einnews.com)