And now, Jet Airways.

[r_ness]

I was never a huge fan of the airline but as is usual with airlines I'm on the side of more competition.

From https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47905089:Passengers are stranded in India and around the world after Jet Airways suspended all international flights

Comments

[achinhibitor]

It's a transfer of wealth from airline shareholders to airline passengers...

(pseudophilosophical musing:) My guess is that it's a symptom of TR being "Bolshie", that is it had a certain sort of mindset that could be called technocratic or centrally-planned. The idea that a corps of disinterested engineers would specify and allocate out resources so that nothing was used inefficiently, and thus economic growth and social well-being would be maximized. This was quite common from the end of the Depression until the Reagan revolution, not only in government, but also academia and big business. Within that mindset, the airlines losing money was a sign of mismanagement of the "air transportation system" as a whole. And you can see signs of this sort of thinking all over: the Civil Aeronautics Board and the price-regulation of many industries in those days. But also consider that the various types of unemployment rate are described as "alternative measures of labor force underutilization" -- unemployment isn't just a Bad Thing that happens to some people, but an allocation of a "resource" that is improper when seen from a God's-eye view.

A couple of years after that article, the top management replaced the entire staff and rebranded TR from a "magazine of technology and policy" to a "magazine of innovation" -- the target audience went from bureaucrats of various sorts to entrepreneurs and investors. The new version is closer to my politics but a lot less interesting in content.

[r_ness]

I'm very comfortable about transfers of wealth to me from investors. I even rode some of those bikeshare bikes for a while, until I ran out of free money plus the $10 I put in.

I haven't ridden the e-bikes because the pricing around here is ridiculous. On an hourly basis the e-bikes cost as much to rent from Lime as a Honda Civic does to rent from Zipcar.

Nonetheless they appear to be losing money on e-scooters, which is pretty amazing:

https://oversharing.substack.com/p/shared-scooters-dont-last-long

https://oversharing.substack.com/p/bird-raises-prices-to-trim-to-scooter

It's particularly amusing to me that much of the money is coming from Softbank. I mean, I'm glad to spend Masayoshi Son's money all day every day, and twice on Sundays.

I just wish we could come up with a much more direct way for him to funnel money to me. :)

[achinhibitor]

I just wish we could come up with a much more direct way for him to funnel money to me. :)

"And more of it, too!"

But it's not so surprising that the Depression/WW II generation was security-oriented and feared employers going broke. We're the next generation, and have never known really bad times, so we don't mind competition that is a little redder in tooth and claw.

[r_ness]

Social benefits like unemployment insurance probably help with that as well.

That might come under the heading of "not knowing really bad times".

[r_ness]

Apparently Softbank gets much of its money from the Saudis.

From https://www.ft.com/content/5bf2948a-de1a-11e8-8f50-cbae5495d92b:

"Saudi Arabia is the biggest investor in the $100bn Vision Fund, with a $45bn commitment from the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund. The Vision Fund is the largest private pool of money ever raised, and has backed companies from Uber to WeWork to food delivery service DoorDash."

[achinhibitor]

Probably the correct word is "dirigiste".