Sounds like we need more typists and horses. Will hordes of traffic controllers help, or there is a better way?
America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
351–360 of 660 posts
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
Earning highly does not universally command respect the way being a doctor does. Some would even see earning that much as being immoral (i.e. actually negative)
Which very highly paid job does not command respect in society? I can’t think of any (Outside of anti-capitalist circles ofc)
Many people have a low view of lawyers and investment bankers.
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#353Everyone is going to make this about money or unions or etc, but my employer briefly worked with some ATC employee groups and I can tell you exactly why they are short staffed: - The FAA has strict hiring requirements. You have to be mentally and physically capable, and by their own admission less than 10% of applicants are qualified for the job. https://www.faa.gov/air-traffic-controller-qualifications - The trainin…
Thanks for the link, I was curious if I'd be a candidate and it turns out I was eliminated by the very first qualification: "must have 20/20 vision in each eye, no contacts" This will be more and more of a bottleneck as time goes on; growing up in-doors and looking at computer screens all day will increase nearsightedness.
> must have 20/20 vision in each eye, no contacts
> Applicants must demonstrate distant and near vision of 20/20 or better in each eye separately. The use of bifocal contact lenses for the correction of near vision is unacceptable.
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#354this seems a domain that's distinctively suited for AI
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are multiple reasons for the doctor shortage but it's at least partly intentional. The primary bottleneck on producing new physicians is the number of residency program slots: every year some students graduate with an MD but are unable to practice medicine because they can't get matched to a residency slot (some do get matched the following year). Most residency programs are funded through Medicare and Congress…
I love how that page is from the AMA, the organization that is largely responsible for pushing Congress to institute the residency caps in the first place because they feared too many physicians would drive down existing physician's incomes.
Crazy how they present as a guild but behave like a cartel.
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ofcourse it would. Capitalism is all about dealing with shortages in exchange for money. So clearly someone just doesn't want to pay up.
I think there’s a catch, which is lag time. Even under pure capitalism, if the market doesn’t believe the money will last, prospects aren’t going to risk their careers given the training lead time required. In the US, ATC are federal employees, aren’t they? So they are regularly furloughed, too. In the current political climate, facing the wrath of politicians doesn’t seem that unlikely, either. The US has form in th…
Conversation about how there’s a critical shortage of ATCs is at least a decade old, and likely older. “Best time to plant a tree” and all that.
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#357You can take the biographical assessment that rejected scores of applicants because reasons like they did well in Science in High School: https://kaisoapbox.com/projects/faa_biographical_assessment/
I failed the assessment, RIP
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#358Everyone is going to make this about money or unions or etc, but my employer briefly worked with some ATC employee groups and I can tell you exactly why they are short staffed: - The FAA has strict hiring requirements. You have to be mentally and physically capable, and by their own admission less than 10% of applicants are qualified for the job. https://www.faa.gov/air-traffic-controller-qualifications - The trainin…
I'm an air traffic controller at a core 30 airport and I firmly believe that many but not all of the issues we face can be fixed by increasing compensation. Namely mandatory 6 day work weeks, high attrition, and burnout.
Maybe occasional free pizza, casual Friday's, and an employee of the month plaque would help?
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love how that page is from the AMA, the organization that is largely responsible for pushing Congress to institute the residency caps in the first place because they feared too many physicians would drive down existing physician's incomes.
Crazy how they present as a guild but behave like a cartel.
Unlike a cartel, you're not required to be an AMA member in order to practice medicine. It's completely voluntary and many doctors never join.
Re: America desperately needs more air traffic controllers
#360With the dismantling of the federal government [1, 2, 5], foreign multi billionaire “special government employee” running amok in US Treasury and other agencies [3], and current administration giving no-confidence signals of FAA/ATCs [4]
Trust in federal gov is vanishing before our eyes folks. And the billionaire class is getting what it wants — no regulations, “network states” (delusional libertarian concept by Balaji and backed by billionaire shitheads like Thiel), limited power to the people and labor force.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/politics/education-department...
[2] https://apnews.com/article/coast-guard-homeland-security-pri...
[3] https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/wyden-demands-...
[4] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-dei-diversity-policies-pl...
[5] https://apnews.com/article/trump-buyout-offer-federal-worker...