The Southwest-izing of America
You want a good ol' flashback to how a truly free, capitalist (uh, there's a dirty PC word) United States used to work? The best way may be to take two roundtrip flights: the first on one of the "major" airlines (you know, the ones that are usually in bankruptcy, merging, demerging or otherwise hiding their true financial picture) & the other flight, on Southwest Airlines.
No, I don't own stock in Southwest, nor any other airline, but the business differences & flight experiences are as clear as night & day.
With Southwest, the experience is one of true free & independent choice...care how much you pay for your ticket: it's not based so much on when you book your flight (unless the flight is full), if you want schedule flexibility, pay a bit more; want the rock bottom cheap price, meet a few specific requirements; care where you sit: check in early & trade some time for that aisle, window or exit row seat. There are no special perks for flying them, frequent flyers get treated the same as everyone else (other than earning the usual free tickets).
Other airlines from the time you book your ticket to the time you get off the plane, groups, classifies & otherwise segregates its' passengers. Now boarding row 35 vs. row 5; 1st class vs. coach; Grand Puba Gold Plated Frequent Flyer with a personal monogram's seat vs. Family with Four kids just happy to sit together; on & on...the passengers' experience & the company's bottomline show the effect of the classification.
With Southwest, passengers (and employees) have camaraderie, laughter, enjoyment. With the others, people can't stand to even look at each other, as they are worried that someone will "jump" in front of them or get something that should be theirs.
The Southwest pleasure comes from having identical opportunities & choices. The results, although varied, do NOT create envy because EVERY person had similar chances, choices & decisions. As a result, Southwest is one of only a few airlines to make money & grow each and every year.
The other airlines don't pay attention to customers, fly where people don't need to be, make them wait until enough cattle (er, passengers) are funneled into a plane to make it "economic" to take off....they also receive HUGE federal, state & local subsidies, file for bankruptcy, default on loans, pensions & other obligations....When their bad, outdated & unsustainable business models finally collapse, the government sweeps in guaranteeing more grants, subsidies, etc. to "help" the employees, customers with whatever it takes to keep the bubble from bursting. Anyone think that government support might have caused the bubble to blow bigger?
Dependency breeds weakness. It does in business. It does in personal lives.
Division breeds anger, animosity & jealousy. Who is promoting & actually doing the dividing? Do We the People benefit? Not likely.
WE THE PEOPLE established a Constitution that guaranteed independence, unity & minimal interference in economic, family & society decisions. Anything that directly affected WE THE PEOPLE was designed to be decided at the State or Local level, ensuring great accountability for the decision & it's results.
Could you imagine an entire nation running, like Southwest Airlines, on freely independent choices? Our country once did & the ability to make those choices are what made us great...The Constitution provided the business plan.
What business model are we following now? How far off might our bankruptcy be?
No, I don't own stock in Southwest, nor any other airline, but the business differences & flight experiences are as clear as night & day.
With Southwest, the experience is one of true free & independent choice...care how much you pay for your ticket: it's not based so much on when you book your flight (unless the flight is full), if you want schedule flexibility, pay a bit more; want the rock bottom cheap price, meet a few specific requirements; care where you sit: check in early & trade some time for that aisle, window or exit row seat. There are no special perks for flying them, frequent flyers get treated the same as everyone else (other than earning the usual free tickets).
Other airlines from the time you book your ticket to the time you get off the plane, groups, classifies & otherwise segregates its' passengers. Now boarding row 35 vs. row 5; 1st class vs. coach; Grand Puba Gold Plated Frequent Flyer with a personal monogram's seat vs. Family with Four kids just happy to sit together; on & on...the passengers' experience & the company's bottomline show the effect of the classification.
With Southwest, passengers (and employees) have camaraderie, laughter, enjoyment. With the others, people can't stand to even look at each other, as they are worried that someone will "jump" in front of them or get something that should be theirs.
The Southwest pleasure comes from having identical opportunities & choices. The results, although varied, do NOT create envy because EVERY person had similar chances, choices & decisions. As a result, Southwest is one of only a few airlines to make money & grow each and every year.
The other airlines don't pay attention to customers, fly where people don't need to be, make them wait until enough cattle (er, passengers) are funneled into a plane to make it "economic" to take off....they also receive HUGE federal, state & local subsidies, file for bankruptcy, default on loans, pensions & other obligations....When their bad, outdated & unsustainable business models finally collapse, the government sweeps in guaranteeing more grants, subsidies, etc. to "help" the employees, customers with whatever it takes to keep the bubble from bursting. Anyone think that government support might have caused the bubble to blow bigger?
Dependency breeds weakness. It does in business. It does in personal lives.
Division breeds anger, animosity & jealousy. Who is promoting & actually doing the dividing? Do We the People benefit? Not likely.
WE THE PEOPLE established a Constitution that guaranteed independence, unity & minimal interference in economic, family & society decisions. Anything that directly affected WE THE PEOPLE was designed to be decided at the State or Local level, ensuring great accountability for the decision & it's results.
Could you imagine an entire nation running, like Southwest Airlines, on freely independent choices? Our country once did & the ability to make those choices are what made us great...The Constitution provided the business plan.
What business model are we following now? How far off might our bankruptcy be?
posted by Joey Constitution | 9/25/2005
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