Trump Admin Ends Airline Payouts: Free Market For Thee, Not For Me
While Al Jazeera might report this as a straightforward economic policy, let's inject some historical nuance. This isn’t just about airlines; it's a textbook example of 'disaster capitalism' for the friendly skies. Remember when airlines went belly-up post-9/11? Or in 2020? Congress didn’t say, 'Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps!' They showered them with billions in bailouts—$54 billion from
2020-2022, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Taxpayers subsidized airline profits, preventing bankruptcies and layoffs. Now, when it's the customer's turn for a sliver of protection, it's suddenly an 'unnecessary burden.' (One might wonder whose 'burden' they’re actually alleviating.) So, the airlines get free government money when times are tough, but passengers? You get
stranded, delayed, and then told to pay more for less. This isn't deregulation; it's a selective deregulation, designed to ensure profit flows upward, regardless of performance. The irony, of course, is that the 'free market' ideologues are always the first to demand corporate welfare when their bottom line is threatened. For an industry that literally takes your money for a service and then
frequently fails to deliver, one might wonder if perhaps the 'burdens' are misplaced.