Your position on the airline "bailout" shows a lack of understanding in several areas. First, the payments made were only meant to compensate for being forced by the government to shut everything down while everyone figured out what was happening. There were no payments made for the losses to follow, which is why nobody has profited and thousands of airline employees nationwide were laid off. Also, if you think the stockholders have profited from this, then you obviously do not own any airline stock. All stocks of the major airlines which received the money have been down since September 11, not up.

You have many opinions listed on your web site. While that can be a good thing, if you do not know enough about a subject it could be best to study it a little longer before posting one. You have a significant airline and aviation-related constituency. The bottom line is, the government can keep its money, or "corporate welfare" as you call it, as soon as it stops regulating them and telling them, via their authority, to shut down and take losses while it gets its act together. You can't have it both ways.

-- Darin J. Werner (darinwerner@netzero.net), March 21, 2002

Answers

Thanks for the question but I must disagree with you. In your statements,

"the payments made were only meant to compensate for being forced by the government to shut everything down while everyone figured out what was happening"

The airline industry was not the only industry that lost money after 9-11. Hotels, car-rental companies, restaurants, etc all suffered massive losses. Should we bail out those industries? All bailout money comes from the pockets of taxpayers. The airlines and their lobbyist used the events of 9-11 to hurriedly pass legislation favorable to them. It is not governments responsibility to bailout every industry that is hurting financially.

"There were no payments made for the losses to follow, which is why nobody has profited and thousands of airline employees nationwide were laid off. Also, if you think the stockholders have profited from this, then you obviously do not own any airline stock. "

Why should taxpayers make payments to profitable companies. Southwest and Delta held cash reserves in the millions. They should have tapped into those resources and cut cost. The bailout did not prevent any of the employees from losing their jobs. The airlines laid off thousands after receiving the money. So who benefited from the bailout. The shareholders of airline stocks. If you ask any employee of the airlines, they would have preferred some compensation directly instead of it going to the airlines. Your right, I do not own any airline stocks. I sold my Airtran shares prior to 9-11. One of the smartest decisions I made last year.

"if you do not know enough about a subject it could be best to study it a little longer before posting one."

I beg to differ on this topic. I can easily detect corporate welfare subisidies. In my book, Corporate Welfare Reform: Saving American Taxpayers $125 Billion, the airline bailout qualifies as government aid to dependent corporations.

-- william coit (wcot@yahoo.com), March 21, 2002.