United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care • Hacker News Board

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#191

Post by csense » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 6:41 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #153

greedo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Anyone that thinks farming in the US is a matter of pulling out the almanac and hoping the rain will match expectations is naive at best. Here's the thought process a farmer goes through in deciding what to plant: 1. What's the expected market price for corn and soybean. 2. What is the cost of crop insurance? 3. What's the current rainfall estimate? 4. What's the cost of water via irrigation and the cost of…

So, context, I'm a libertarian. But, bear with me a moment. Why are subsidies bad? They "distort the market". How do subsidies distort the market? They cause overproduction of the subsidized good. Where an efficient allocation would tend to fairly precisely match demand to production (more precisely than any other known way of doing it), thus allowing the rest of the capital to go do other useful things, a subsidized…

An economics professor of mine said that, besides food subsidies, another reason rich countries have few famines is livestock farming.

There's a lot of energy lost in the process of feeding corn to cattle and turning them into burgers; you could feed more people by eating the corn directly.

So when there's going to be a corn shortage like this year, livestock go to slaughter ahead of schedule, which reduces the demand for corn, and increases the supply of meat.

On its face, eating meat is a luxury, but it actually serves an important function as a buffer against shortages.

If vegetarianism ever became a very popular lifestyle (I'd say, very roughly, if it was adopted by a majority), the risk of food shortages would increase.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#192

Post by stonemetal » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 7:00 PM UTC

calinet6 wrote: post #123

stonemetal wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your post is endemic of something I see a lot on HN. You know nothing about agriculture, but you see a minor set of stories and you think you're a fucking expert. What is with the create a throwaway account to insult people thing? Karma isn't worth anything why not burn it under your real username?

Frankly, HN is a better place if people value their accounts and their reputation. This is a Good Thing.

HN is a better place if people value their accounts and their reputation. This is a Good Thing.

Only if it makes them valuable members of the community. If patio11(just as an example no offense) logged out of patio11 and logged in as a string of throw away accounts, then him valuing his account hurts the community. It incorrectly values the patio11 persona. It improves engagement of someone who is actively trolling. It actively encourages others to engage in such behavior.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#193

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 7:09 PM UTC

imgabe wrote: post #139

lusr wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your post is endemic of something I see a lot of on the Internet. You hide behind an account you just made, aggressively, lengthily and rudely responding to somebody who actually desired to contribute to the discussion without contributing much of anything yourself, without seeing the irony in any of this.

Actually I found it to be a pretty compelling and well reasoned indictment of grandparent's utter failure to consider the many complex factors that can lead to the necessity of subsidizing certain industries.

[deleted]

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#194

Post by arjn » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 7:19 PM UTC

fjarlq wrote: post #90

arjn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sucks to say this but in the US if you're male, the smart/safe thing to do is not have any contact with an unaccompanied child at all. There is a non-trivial chance that may be misconstrued as something else and you could find yourself in a whole world of trouble. Of course this should not stop someone from bringing a distressed child to the attention of the flight crew and other passengers.

Do you have evidence to support this claim?

Enough people have posted links in this thread. Its also easy enough to search for. However, as mentioned, no matter what you read or infer, if there is a child in distress on an airplane or in an airport the very least you should do is bring it to the attention of airport or airline staff.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#195

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 7:26 PM UTC

jhcoaps wrote: post #94

chimi wrote: post #33

This is a problem bigger than United -- which has a lot of problems. This is what you get when you subsidize bad companies that need to fail. United needs to fail so someone better can take over. The moral hazards are ruining the country. I saw it recently with farmers struggling from the drought. Compare this farmer: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417774n who has acres full of hay that don't do well in the…

Your post is endemic of something I see a lot on HN. You know nothing about agriculture, but you see a minor set of stories and you think you're a fucking expert. You have no idea if the diversified strategy has a higher expected value, or if it's just a variance play based on heat, or if different weather conditions could've affected interplay in a different way. You have no idea what the crop insurances for differe…

[deleted]

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#196

Post by wtvanhest » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 7:49 PM UTC

greedo wrote: post #188

wtvanhest wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

South West management hedged fuel in a risky financial bet which paid off when fuel prices unexpected skyrocketed in the mid 2000s. This risky bet led to industry leading profitability. Once South West's hedges came off their profitability has declined. They are not burdened with the same debt because they had profitability for so long. They also do not maintain a hub and spoke system which keeps their costs down. Be…

Southwest has been around for 45 years. I haven't looked at their P&L for those years, but I doubt that their key to longterm success is due primarily to hedging at the turn of the century. Hedging fuel costs is simply a part of doing business in the transportation field, whether it's shipping, airlines, trains, or trucking. Also, many posters have said that Southwest is non-union. This is incorrect. Their pilots are…

I agree in part that poor management has been the problem at many airlines, but the another real problem is that the airline industry has high fixed costs in a perfectly competitive environment. Before the airlines were deregulated in the 80s, ticket prices were high, everyone made money. The 90s ushered in low oil prices with strong US economic growth (good for cyclical businesses).

After deregulation oil stayed cheap until the mid 2000s. For whatever reason, South West hedged far more oil than industry practice and when oil went up dramatically in the mid 2000s the airline benefited dramatically. I have looked at their 10Ks, Qs, (P&Ls) and have studied the topic in some level of depth.

South West has a great culture, which could be unrelated to their profitability, but no one knows that for sure. Their profitability has far more to do with fuel hedging than any other single factor. My argument which cannot be proved, but I hope is considered is that the culture has more to do with the employees being compensated well, and the airline seeming stable than the reverse.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#197

Post by fleitz » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 8:25 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #150

fleitz wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll second this, in North America everything that is possible to make a child absolutely dependant is done. Parents who try to raise functioning adults are shunned. There was a national outcry because someone let their 12 year old ride a subway. You can find most of the roots of helicopter parenting in attachment parenting, the idea that a child should always be touched by their parent until they're about 5.

I grew up in Moscow, before I turned ten I would regularly take the subway all the way to school and back. I find it ludicrous and offensive that some of my peers weren't allowed to walk or bike ten blocks to school in a suburban neighborhood.

Yeah, there's a strange sense of danger in north america, my father used to play in bomb craters out front of his families' apartment.

Sucks to grow up in a town that makes ball bearings.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#198

Post by alushta » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 8:44 PM UTC

mseebach wrote: post #83

gnaffle wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryanair isn't subsidized. It's a bad airline that doesn't need to fail because it makes money. It's one of the airlines in Europe with the worst customer service track record. The same is true for lots of other compenies with terrible customer service. On the other hand, there are many state-owned or subsidized airlines that have very good customer service. So whether or not United needs to fail, I think the problem…

Ryanair isn't a bad airline. It's a fairly good airline in terms of moving passengers around. They are completely honest, even proud, to offer literally no customer service and comfort. Look at the comments here: http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/ryan.htm Not one is about Ryanair failing to deliver the service they've sold (as the article is very much about United failing to) - they're all about people being disapp…

Here's the song for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyl2tOaKxM

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#199

Post by jhcoaps2 » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 8:47 PM UTC

incision wrote: post #183

jhcoaps wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The response doesn't actually demonstrate that the parent is incorrect or propose a complete alternative. There is inadequate evidence here to come to any conclusion. It would be irresponsible of me to claim that I knew all the farmer's capabilities, costs, risks, weather forecasts, crop options, crop rotation requirements, etc. If I did that, I'd be guilty of exactly the same mistake as OP. Noise is not signal. No…

Right. You did a great job of noisily pointing out that the parent is noisy, without generating much if any signal yourself. You don't have to provide a conclusion, just presenting a theory about how to apply those data points that you keep rattling off would be something constructive, a starting point. Thing is, that would be hard and expose something you created to criticism. It's much easier to simply sit back and…

> . It's much easier to simply sit back and poke holes in someone else's flawed theory while alluding to an ability to construct a better one yet demonstrating absolutely nothing.

I pointed out that somebody had come to unsupported conclusions.

Exactly what have you pointed out? Oh right, absolutely nothing... you're just bitching about me unproductively.

Fucking hypocrite.

Re: United Airlines Lost My Friend's 10 Year Old Daughter And Didn't Care

#200

Post by jhcoaps2 » Tue, Aug 14, 2012, 8:49 PM UTC

lusr wrote: post #127

jhcoaps wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your post is endemic of something I see a lot on HN. You know nothing about agriculture, but you see a minor set of stories and you think you're a fucking expert. You have no idea if the diversified strategy has a higher expected value, or if it's just a variance play based on heat, or if different weather conditions could've affected interplay in a different way. You have no idea what the crop insurances for differe…

Your post is endemic of something I see a lot of on the Internet. You hide behind an account you just made, aggressively, lengthily and rudely responding to somebody who actually desired to contribute to the discussion without contributing much of anything yourself, without seeing the irony in any of this.

The hypocrisy of your posts is almost overwhelming.

That said, my original constructive criticism got me hellbanned (as happens to nearly all people who post sentiment that could be construed as anti-libertarian), whereas your idiotic and unaware hypocrisy got you nothing.

Unshocking, given the faggotry of you and this site.