Why we have the agony of success

A Senior View

By Ed Lyons

(Updated: Friday, April 18, 2008, 9:00 PM)

What do you call an organization that has everything going for it, but is still failing?

Let's take the airlines for example. Not just one of them ... all of them.

First, they buy some airplanes and they do it with money from investors, government grants and federally allocated public transportation funds, etc. In other words, it's someone else's money -- the "peoples' money."

Then, turning to their embedded politicos, they will diminish their competition and guarantee a maximum of business.

Now, headed up by the CEO (chief executive officer) who has been especially educated in obtaining the maximum profit out of the minimum regard for the welfare of the passenger, we have another entry into the world of public transport.

Picture, if you will, the poor soul who has been interrogated, x rayed, fluoroscoped, had his shoes removed and to varying degrees, been publicly frisked -- had his luggage given the same violation and removed and then is jammed into a space that used to be referred as the cargo hold.

We see him now, his knees pressed against his chin, straining to avoid eye contact with the stewardess (above all, don't call her that!) for fear that it might indicate that he could be troublesome or even alive.

And then comes the mystery of when the plane will actually take off and when (and, sometimes, where) it will land. All of which is in consideration of the airline -- not its "cargo!"

So, there you have it, captured cliental, guaranteed cargo, exemption from most of rules and regulations that might present a financial burden and still this morning's headlines tell us that our airline has gone bankrupt.

How? Why? could it be that the administrative cost is more than half of the income, or is it the "peoples' fault?"

Does all this call to mind another entity with the same practices and problems? Like our government?

Could it be that they both share the same problem?

Mismanagement?

Grandpa sez: "Is it government of the people and for the people or despite the people?"