Thanks, you linked to some good info. The question is what can be done to turn this around.
Deregulation always sounds like the right thing to do, but in fact we need regulations. If you look at the products of deregulation you need to ask if you were better off decades ago when airlines, energy, banks, etc were much more regulated, I believe the answer in virtually every case is yes, the lack of regulations led to higher prices and less service, not the lower prices and better services that were promised. The economic failure in 2008 was largely a case of greed, massive bonuses, etc leading to a house of cards that had to fall. Key executives got 7, 8, 9, and even 10 figure bonuses for building what they had to know was a house of cards, but it didn't matter what they were building as long as they were growing their bonuses, when the house of cards fell they walked away with billions.
Remember decades ago when airlines were regulated. Back then you could fly non stop to all sorts of cities. Your baggage was checked at no cost to you, and even in couch you got a hot meal if the flight was over a couple hours. The planes back then often flew half filled, prices were lower, but the likes of Pan Am, TWA, etc had provided quality service for decades, and continued to do so. How does that compare with flying today? I used to look forward to it, now I try to do so as infrequently as possible. Jet's fly a lot faster than the DC-6's or Constellation's, yet I suspect that for many destinations it takes much longer to get their because of flying through one or two hubs where way back then non stops were available at no extra cost.
I may just be nostalgia, but I believe we'd be better off if we got back to basics and stopped letting the computers make their decisions in nanosecond which make profits for few while costing many.
Gary
