Tracy R Reed wrote:
So we all pay.
How about kids? I think that children's tickets should be 10 times the
price of an adult. I find the number of screaming children on flights
far more repulsive than even the most morbidly obese individual.
How about pregnant women? They're going to be running to the bathroom
continuously and inconveniencing everybody on the row they have to get
out of and are far more likely to throw up.
How about that? Now do you understand why what you are proposing is
wrong on a philosophical level?
Or worse, let's talk about some of the parents. I had a woman get on in
the last boarding group with her child and ask if I could move so she
could sit with her son.
Uh, no.
If you couldn't be bothered to get your first group boarding pass at the
24 hour mark (this was Southwest) or be bothered to shell out the extra
$200 to guarantee a first boarding group, why should I give up my seat
to you? And I told her so. Loudly.
And if you are especially overweight and cannot
reasonably fit in one seat (and who hasn't sat next to that person?)
they can charge you for the seat beside you and leave it empty. It isn't
fair for the other passenger to have your flab falling over into their
lap. Especially on a 15 hour flight to, oh, say, VIETNAM.
Let me switch this the other direction:
Why should someone large pay for *your* convenience? *You* could have
paid for first class, after all.
My argument about this comes from the fact that no matter *what* weight
I'm at, my shoulders are going to hit yours. A lot. I'm 6' 3" and my
weight has *zero* impact on how wide my shoulders are. My genetics,
however, does.
What does have an impact is the fact that the seats on the airplanes
have been shrinking for years and are too damn small. I can't even open
a 13" laptop anymore without worrying that the seat in front of me is
going to crush the display. *That's* how I know that the seats have
been shrinking--my laptop provides an independent measuring stick.
Furthermore, weight is not always under voluntary control. Certain
races have a genetic predisposition to be large and *still* be
healthy--should they get penalized?
Everybody has some characteristic that is unprofitable for the
corporatocracy. Be very careful about providing the power to
discriminate based upon it.
-a
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