Today, the U.S. fleet has shrunk to just four main carriers, which control 80 percent-plus of the U.S. market. No wonder passengers are at the mercy of the major airlines: flights jam-packed, routes slashed, service to smaller airports dumped.
Paul SolmanMaybe the discipline in North America is just consolidation, right? I mean, it may be that if there were more vigorous pursuit of antitrust in America, there would have more competitors competing on price, and then airlines wouldn't be making any money again.
Paul SolmanA lot of people think, particularly the people who have benefited, that they're entitled to the fruits of their abilities, their labor.
Paul SolmanAmerica isn't Wollman Rink, but I think almost everybody watching, and certainly the people who voted for him, have had frustrating experiences with bureaucrats and bureaucracy, private as well as public, pushing them around.
Paul SolmanIn the country, our best years economically were from the 1940s into the 1970s, when we had the best public works - we call it infrastructure today - in the history of the world. Highways, bridges, water and sewer, community colleges and medical research. We don't do that the way we used to.
Paul Solman