There has been a disturbing rash of stories lately about air traffic controllers sleeping on the job. Fortunately, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is on the case. The FAA will implement new regulations this week requiring more time off between shifts and tighter restrictions on late-night shifts for traffic controllers.
This illustrates why air traffic control is simply too important an issue to leave to the free market. Lives are literally at stake every day. These sleeping-on-the-job stories are a classic example of market failure. It is time to put the government in charge of air traffic control and take it out of the hands of greedy capitalists.
If you and your small child are flying away on a vacation, most airlines will let the child fly for free. If the child sits in your lap, you don’t have to pay for a second seat. But the National Transportation Safety Board doesn’t think that is safe. Severe turbulence and rough landings kill a lap-child or two every decade.
That’s why NTSB wants to require all children to sit separately, comfortably ensconced in the child safety seats they use when riding in a car.
The NTSB’s intentions are laudable. They’re trying to make people safer. But intentions are not results. And this rule’s results would be exactly opposite its intentions. It would kill far more people than it would save.
That’s because making parents pay for an extra ticket raises the cost of flying. Many families will choose to drive instead. And remember, driving is much more dangerous than flying. According to CEI’s Sam Kazman, studies show that the extra driving in lieu of flying would kill about 50 people per decade, plus thousands more injuries.
Throwing away 50 lives to save one or two lives is a bad deal. It is literally death by regulation. That’s also why the FAA has repeatedly refused NTSB’s periodic demands to make parents pay more to fly. May they stand firm again.
See also today’s press release from Sam Kazman.
A regulation passed in 2005 states that “at least 10 percent of all business at the airport selling consumer products or providing consumer services to the public are small business concerns (as defined by regulations of the Secretary) owned and controlled by a socially and economically disadvantaged individual (as defined in section 47113(a) of this title).
The requirement that the size of a business be taken into account is puzzling; a company’s size has little to do with whether it will do a good job or not.
I would also argue that airports are disadvantaged enough, having already to deal with the TSA, the FAA, the DOT, and others. Snark aside, airports are poorly run, almost without exception. Forcing them to hire vendors and contractors on factors other than price and performance is unlikely to improve matters.
Disadvantaged business quotas bring up a third issue: What happens if a disadvantaged business owner prospers through her hard work, and can no longer be considered disadvantaged? Does she get kicked out of the airport?
That thorny question would have been put to rest on April 21 of this year, when a built-in sunset provision would have made the regulation expire. Wayne Crews and I have written before favoring sunset rules for all new regulations. It’s a painless way to automatically get rid of rules when they become obsolete, or that turn out to be more trouble than they’re worth.
If a rule merits another five years on the books, Congress should be able to vote on it.
In this case, however, the Department of Transportation is getting set to renew the disadvantaged quota program all by itself. Permanently.
According to the DOT, leaving in the sunset provision “would simply cause confusion and disruption, making it more difficult for all parties concerned to carry out their responsibilities under the statute.”
Laws are supposed to be made by legislative branch, not the executive. What we have here is one more case of regulation without representation, out of thousands. You can read all about it in today’s Federal Register.
Want to fly a plane? The FAA just published 72 pages worth of changes to its already extensive certification rules. 173 changes in all.
Don’t forget to list your current residential address when applying for a knowledge test.
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