Is Air Canada's firing of 2000 employees a) A response to rising fuel prices,
b) A message to remaining employees whose contract expires next year,
c) A passive-aggressive attempt to collect a government bailout, or
d) An attempt to soothe its panicky corporate and institutional shareholders?
This page picks d): Who's driving up fuel prices because of speculation in oil & gas futures, shifting the blame for a corporate culture of selfishness and ineptitude to an ever-dwindling roster of employees, and bankrolling governments who sign on for such free-market tomfoolery as 'Open Skies'?
Either way, air travel as we know it appears to be coming to an end. One would think that governments and corporations would be stepping in to promote alternatives, such as rail travel, but nobody's willing to invest in it like they are in guessing how much corn can be taken out of peoples' mouths for 'alternative' fuels or flogging pet toys online like they were doing at the turn of this century. Supply and Demand be damned: today's economy is the triumph of marketing over common sense.
A decade ago Eastern Europe finally figured out that Communism wasn't that great an idea. Could the rest of us be starting to feel the same way about Capitalism?
No comments:
Post a Comment