Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What happened to American Airlines will happen to America

It took a while, but it finally happened.  American Airlines, with its crushing cost structure, finally declared bankruptcy.  Driving this decision was the inflexibility of its greedy unions and their crazy wages and benefits that have saddled American Airlines with unsustainable debt.

Pensions take the lion's share of the blame, and then comes out of control union wages and benefits.  Pensions are in the red to the tune of about $8 Billion dollars in unfunded checks to geezers who no longer load a single bag, check a single ticket or replace a single rivet on a single plane.  In the long run, the pensions that were coerced out of American Airlines have run the ship into the reef.  In reality now, American Airlines is paying three baggage handlers for every one that actually handles baggage.  The other two are retired and collecting pensions.  No business can run like this indefinitely, and American Airlines finally has hit bottom.

They can thank their greedy, selfish unions for wrecking their company.  When you pay a baggage handler, who flunked out of high school, a wage that is wildly beyond the actual value of his service (such is the nature of unions), in time the costs of doing business will disadvantage that company in the market place to such an extent that in the long run, the chickens will come home to roost.  The company simply cannot compete against leaner, meaner competitors.  And in the long run they go broke, just like American Airlines.  And United Airlines before them.  And TWA before them, and Pan AM before them, and on and on. 

The United States of America is heading down this exact same path: paying three teachers for every one teacher that stands in front of students: one teaches, and two more are retired, but the school district is on the hook for all of the teachers salary, and the pensioners pensions.  Ditto policemen: for every one cop on the beat, there are two more drawing pensions.  And ditto for firemen: for every firefighter fighting fires, there are two more watching the Bears game in their Lay-Z-Boy, sucking down Molsons and collecting pensions. 

All on the county, state and federal dime.  We are not so unlike American Airlines, the U.S. as a whole.  When only 47% of Americans pay federal taxes, where are we headed in the long run?  Into bankruptcy, just like American Airlines.

We better wake up and smell the coffee before it's too late. 

8 comments:

Silverfiddle said...

But! But! But... If American Airlines could have just printed its own money...

Fredd said...

Silver:

They kinda did: they called them frequent flyer miles. (American Airlines invented those, FYI)

WomanHonorThyself said...

your post title says it all Fredd..not to mention the heinous TSA discouraging anyone but the real terrorists from flying! .Keep the faith~ my friend:)

Kid said...

Pure Poetry Freed.

btw, It is too late.

Fredd said...

Ducky: give it up. I don't read your pathetic comments, and I sure as hell will not post any.

Geez. You have got to be the dumbest liberal out there.

And that's saying something.

Z said...

Fredd, you're the BEST! I love your comment to Ducky; and I think you're right.

I believe your headline's absolutely right, too...and Kid's right; it's too late.

Frequent Flyer Miles...perfect!

Oh God, I'm so depressed in spite of the good humor and intelligence of you and SF and Kid and all the other great bloggers. It's not enough to just blog our dissatisfaction and watch it happen.

Kid said...

Z said "It's not enough to just blog our dissatisfaction and watch it happen."

Hear Hear Z. It is difficult watching so many without a clue. And they vote, not to mention many even control stuff.

And Thanks.

dmarks said...

Employers want to pay a fair wage, have a merit-based approach where only qualified people make management decisions, and they want to be able to fire bad employees who disgrace the business.

The presence of American-style labor unions prevents all 3.