People often ask me: "How will you keeping coming up with stuff to write? Maybe you shouldn't be writing so much stuff so early?" I considered that I was overly-saturating my blog too early in an effort to get out enough content that a variety of readers would find something that interests them. But fortunately . . .
The news cycle will always provide idiots making bad, illogical decisions!
Most people by now have heard the story of United Airlines passenger being involuntarily removed from a plane due to overbooking, but I'll link a video here with a short explanation:
As is customary by idiots not anticipating public relations nightmares, United Airlines overbooked this particular flight (3411). However, when the airline needed four additional seats for crew members, no one volunteered to accept the usual $800 and rebooking to give up his seat on the flight. The airline decided somehow to draw four passengers at random to remove from the flight (as is the airline's right). I do not know the specifics, but this man's name was drawn; and he refused to oblige the airline's legal right to remove him involuntarily from the plane. The only grey area I can find is the use of potentially excessive or ineffectve force to remove from the plane seen in the video below.
Let me flashback for a moment to recent car purchase I made...
I had negotiated for several hours with the salesman, and we had arrived at a mutually agreeable price that several hours before that he told me could not achieve repeatedly echoing the sentiment "sorry, buddy, we just can't go that low."
Now, I was in another office signing a document to finalize the purchase of my car. A gentleman handed me several pages and announced with a directing point "Sign here. Initial here. Sign here." Instead of signing the document, I began reading it in its entirety.
"It's all standard stuff," he reassured. Oh, the standard stuff, I thought. "Standard" like a universally voted upon method of procedures insuring an equitable trade between supplier or consumer or "the stuff all companies put in at the end of a contract to shackle you to their company for life or pay a crushing fee."
I eventually read over a section called a "disposition fee" that is a fee charged for returning the car at the end of its lease which is waived if you lease/purchase another product from said company. I asked the gentleman why it was included. He said "oh, it's standard on these kinds of things." Yeah, so was paying $5,000 more over the leasing period an hour ago. I told him that this wasn't included in the negotiation I had made with the salesman. "Well, like I said it's standard stuff so . . . " (every idiot agrees to this cause they don't read the contracts?)
Long story short, the fee was waived after a short process, and I signed the contract (probably missed something else too . . .)
Back to the United Airlines passenger
Now, once this man's name comes up the Hunger Games Lottery, no doubt he is racking his brain trying to divulge whether this is legal. He purchased a ticket, he has a right to someone else's plane? His needs to return home on time and treat his hospital patients outweigh the need of the airline to put four of their crew members in seats on the plane! As a concept it does kinda make sense. But unfortunately, that is not the contract he willingly entered into! A quick look at only the U.S. Department of Transportation "Fly Rights" page informs you that an airline can kick you off their property involuntarily.
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights
Now, I admit the semi-barbaric scene in which the man is dragged off the plane while screaming like a toddler is difficult to condone as necessary force, but breaking a law has consequences. You don't get to just deny a law and hope that executors of such law cannot resort to force. There is also always the outside chance that this guy is a stone-cold GENIUS seeking to mire United Airlines in a lawsuit they have to settle for a large amount of money.
Another message should be coming through to illegal protesters and illegal occupiers of space that BREAKING THE LAW HAS CONSEQUENCES. If you are not complying with legally and duly ordained statutes of your society, you are subject to legal and lawful violence as a last resort to enforce those statutes. You are not immune to this action because you yourself are not aggressively violent or because "what you feel you are doing is right."
As an epilogue . . . some might call for greater regulation of airlines in their treatment of their passengers. Obviously, you can't expect a passenger to uphold his end of a consensual agreement (sarcasm font).
But I would encourage to let this be a symbol of the efficacy of free market. Voice your opinions with your wallets. If you think United Airlines' implementation of this policy is unfair (and barbaric), refuse to patronize them and swallow their disposition fee. Either they will have to correct their policies or their prices.
Also, I know this is so UNFATHOMABLE (saracasm font again), but you could organize an airline to fill the void for a call for an airline service that doesn't forcibly remove passengers from their planes.
But you're probably too busy watching YouTube . . . It's ok. So am I.