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Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

businessinsider.com

221–230 of 364 posts

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#221
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the auction model doesn't seem to work well when it comes to spectrum. What you end up with is a few big players delivering awful service while having enough money to outbid anyone, essentially preventing any competitor from ever breaking into the market to provide better service.

What I don't like is the DoD keeping the best 5G spectrum to themselves (3GHz-4Ghz) while the rest of the world is using it, putting our future lead in communiciations industry at risk.

Lead? Telecom in the US is an oligopoly, with most of the major spending backed by government grants. Many areas are still supported by rotting copper and old 2g/3g towers because there's no incentive for providers to upgrade them. Unless you meant something else by "communications industry".

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#222
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet it's work that funds the taxes that would pay for basic income. Unless people are willing to take a massive decrease in quality of life to fund such a system, it will never happen.

Your statement isn't true in the US. The wealthiest in this country don't really do any work. In fact, the wealthier you are, the less you actually have to work. The people who are working for a wage are the ones who are working to live, and the wealthiest don't have to do that. Often, people who work the hardest make the least. I reject your premise that that people will have a reduced quality of life. These taxes w…

Creating value requires some combination of labor and capital.

Take away any return on capital and that capital goes elsewhere.

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder what this will do to the method of estimating Chinas economy via Electricity/Coal usage. I think the causality goes the other way. I think that they are doing this because that is how their economy is measured.

Im pretty sure that before this electricity usage was not the primary measure of productivity. I think the news is that this Is a new "easy" way of attemting to force ramp up

But if you know that people are using this method, so do the party leaders. It would be no surprise they are juicing their metrics.

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#224

Ironic. I had heard tales of the old Soviet Union about trains running empty to fill distance quotas. It was presented as the ultimate proof of how messed up their system was.

I think I recall reading not too long ago about how in isolated cases recently, the price of electricity can go negative. This presumably would mean that people are being paid to waste it. But really, they're being paid to help keep the grid stable and running.

Most utilities don't have any way to store large amounts of energy, and it's non trivial to start up most energy generation. To me the grid looks like something between wizardry and a house of cards.

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#225
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

y and this optimizes for the highest bidder, i.e. most profitable and not the airline best serving the user.

Companies are only profitable because they serve their users better than their competitors.

Only true in markets and industries where there is a low barrier to entry.

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#226
Under Europe's rules, airlines operating out of the continent must continue to run 80% of their allocated slots or risk losing them to a competitor.

Risk losing their slots to a competitor? No airline is making money right now and none can afford to take over new slots to operate more flights. Your slots are completely safe - there are no buyers.

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a metric becomes a target

Aren't all metrics targets?

I think what he is trying to say is that the metrics were meant be a check, a measure of knowing, for whether we are going to meet our vision/target.

Just yesterday, at our dev team at a trading firm, we went through our OKR review for the quarter. The metrics were the target yesterday. It was all about clicking those check boxes and not about delivering the bigger picture.

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a metric becomes a target

Aren't all metrics targets?

No, they are supposed to measure progress in one dimension towards a target. They are often misused, but it’s not necessary to conflate the improper use case with the original intent.

Re: Airlines flying empty planes to keep flight slots during coronavirus outbreak

#230
post #221
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't like is the DoD keeping the best 5G spectrum to themselves (3GHz-4Ghz) while the rest of the world is using it, putting our future lead in communiciations industry at risk.

Lead? Telecom in the US is an oligopoly, with most of the major spending backed by government grants. Many areas are still supported by rotting copper and old 2g/3g towers because there's no incentive for providers to upgrade them. Unless you meant something else by "communications industry".

That rotting copper is going to be immensely valuable after the collapse.
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