Biden's airline racism is price discrimination
Joe Biden’s attempt to provide ‘breathing room’ for consumers would replace capitalism with big government socialism. Its class warfare demagoguery designed to divide, antagonize, and gin up votes.
Joe Biden says that it’s racist for airlines to charge for extra legroom.
According to Biden, people of color are being discriminated against by airlines, banks, oil companies, cable companies, and other industries. Biden smears these industries with charges of racism to highlight his administration's attempts to create “financial breathing room.”
By falsely accusing businesses of racism, Biden’s real objective is to gin up ‘people of color’ votes before the November election. He needs breathing room to help Democratic candidates who are going down in flames because of their destructive policies that harm all Americans, rich and poor alike.
Upselling is not racism; it’s price discrimination - a beneficial business practice that provides various services or products at different price points. Airlines generally make sure that customers know about opportunities to purchase extra legroom seats before they complete their ticket purchase. Certainly, airlines want to upsell their product or service. It’s a legitimate and common business practice that allows companies to eliminate all consumer surplus when businesses can accurately determine what each customer will pay for a specific product or service and then sell it for that price. For price discrimination to work, businesses must prevent resale, must be able to operate in an imperfect market, and must demonstrate demand elasticities.
By increasing choice, airlines benefit customers, the essence of a free enterprise market. True, consumers are not equal because wealth and incomes are not equal. Nor can people be made equal by government diktat. Only a dictator or authoritarian state can force that change on corporate America.
During his speech, at the White House Wednesday, Biden slandered airlines for levying additional charges for seats with extra legroom, turning it into a race issue.
He claims the extra fees affect people of color and impoverished citizens the most. His administration is working to eliminate resort fees, processing fees for concert tickets, and other charges that eat away at Americans’ savings.
“Some airlines, if you want six more inches between you and the seat in front, you pay more money. But you don't know it until you purchase your ticket,” Biden said in the speech, billed as “remarks by President Biden on protecting American consumers from junk fees.” Neither of these statements is true. On many domestic flights, three inches of extra room is more common. And since marginalized people fly far less often than other groups, it’s a strange logic that suggests they are disproportionately harmed. Most people would say that extra legroom fees affect tall people the most.
“Look folks, these are junk fees,” Biden added. “They are unfair and they hit marginalized Americans the hardest, especially low-income folks, and people of color.”
“These are billions of dollars. It doesn't add up to billions for the individual, but it adds up to two, three, four hundred bucks for average families,” he said, affirming that this move could benefit a lot of people during Thanksgiving travel.
If successful, Joe Biden’s attempt to provide ‘breathing room’ for consumers would replace capitalism with big government socialism. It has nothing to do with racism; its class warfare demagoguery designed to divide, antagonize, and gin up votes.
The executive suite of Airforce One, the president’s official aircraft, includes sleeping quarters with two couches that can be converted into beds. I’m sure it has plenty of legroom.