Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

American aviation is near collapse?

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 118 posts

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#91

Post by trimethylpurine »

array_key_first wrote: post #90
trimethylpurine wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to 8 USC 1324, it looks like what you're talking about could quickly land you in prison for up to 5 years. So, it's a scheme maybe, but not a legal one.

That has nothing to do with what I'm talking about - 8 USC 1324 is related to harboring or bringing an alien. Companies hiring people with what they believe are genuine documents, by reasonable inspection, is perfectly legal. Please note this just means you have to look at them. The companies are doing this "unknowingly". Of course they're not stupid, they're fully aware they're hiring a lot of undocumented people. B…

Okay, I can see for that one that you might say that you didn't pay them to enter the country and that you didn't help them find a home and so you aren't technically harboring.

But, what about this one?

18 U.S.C. § 1546

This says, "having reason to know." So, you actually don't have to really know, you just have to have reason to know, to be incarcerated. That really seems like I should check, if only to cover my own ass. Like if the picture wasn't clear but you accepted it anyway, you had reason to know? Seems pretty loose for anyone that wants to enforce it.

I'm clearly not an attorney, so if you are, please correct me.

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#93

Post by franktankbank »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #86
autoexec wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at the massive increase in, for example, CEO salaries over the last few decades why was nobody worried about inflation then? "Pay people more" seems to be just fine as long as it's only certain people. Once the wrong kind of people, whose wages have stagnated for decades, want an increase in pay then our entire economy is suddenly at risk. I feel that the main driver behind the inflation we've seen in the…

> CEO salaries over the last few decades why was nobody worried about inflation then? Because it’s economically insignificant. Total CEO pay across the Russell 1000 excluding Musk is in the tens of billions. Paying a few people more isn’t inflationary. (It’s other kinds of problematic.)

What other kinds of problematic is it?

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#94

Post by JumpCrisscross »

franktankbank wrote: post #93
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CEO salaries over the last few decades why was nobody worried about inflation then? Because it’s economically insignificant. Total CEO pay across the Russell 1000 excluding Musk is in the tens of billions. Paying a few people more isn’t inflationary. (It’s other kinds of problematic.)

What other kinds of problematic is it?

> What other kinds of problematic is it?

There seem to be social consequenes to that sort of income inequality. There are solid arguments for enabling founders to become fabulously wealthy. The argument seems a bit more stretched for managers.

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#95

Post by jjk166 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #77
fny wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You absolutely can see a difference. [0] The term of art is "Runway Incursions", and the stats definitely show our airports are working at the limits of safety. [0]: https://www.buckycountry.com/2025/09/22/runway-close-calls-u...

That's a 7 years graph, where category A incursions change by 0.7σ, and total incursions are basically horizontal. What statistical conclusion are you taking from it?

Category A and B incursions increased by 2.8σ. Further, it was 7 years of increases in a row. Either factor on its own would indicate a process out of statistical control.

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#96

Post by jjk166 »

ryandrake wrote: post #39
toomuchtodo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Air traffic controllers require a significant investment by the federal government, I take no issue with age limits for both investment (lower bound) and safety reasons (upper bound) (if the data says it is reasonable, I'll always defer to the data). I take exceptional issue with the fact that their pay is not considered essential. There should be no way for this critical infrastructure to be not considered essential…

This assumes that controllers over 56 years old are statistically "unsafe," presumably due to perceived cognitive speed and ability. So unsafe that the concern overrides experience, familiarity with systems, and other key benefits of tenure. I'd love to see that data.

https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/58231

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#97

Post by jjk166 »

nimbius wrote: post #26

it is a perfect storm: - deregulation of airlines in the 1980s led to rampant consolidation of routes and SPOF hubs that only work for revenue purposes and offer no real resilience in traffic planning. over-subscription of flights and lack of any real competition compounds this issue. - climate change and global warming increasingly exacerbate severe weather conditions that ground aircraft and incur delays or cancell…

Calling it a perfect storm is too generous. This is deliberately tearing down the floodgates that protect you from the extremely normal and predictable storms.

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#98

Post by ndiddy »

array_key_first wrote: post #85
trimethylpurine wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the policy is that you can't hire without documentation. Do you mean that there is a scheme in place, outside of the legal framework?

Yes, there is a legal scheme in place: you're not allowed to validate the authenticity of provided documentation as a company. If someone is undocumented, they can forge documents and that's completely allowed. The reason we have this loophole is because many industries, particularly in the South, rely directly on immigrant labor. The republicans cannot risk alienating their consistency or further hurting the already…

> The reason we have this loophole is because many industries, particularly in the South, rely directly on immigrant labor. The republicans cannot risk alienating their consistency or further hurting the already brittle economy of Red states.

One example of this playing out was when the Florida state senate (Republican supermajority) shot down a bill that would have required businesses to use E-Verify to validate the authenticity of their employees' documentation. https://www.cfpublic.org/politics/2025-05-05/bill-to-expand-...

> Bill Herrle, state executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small businesses, said the bill would have made the state’s labor shortage worse and dampened productivity and entrepreneurship in the state. He said his group was relieved that it didn’t pass.

> “When I talk to small business owners now, I’m finding them busy doing a job they’d like to hire someone to do’’ Herrle said. “They’re working the line. They’re working in the kitchen. They’re working the register. And when a small business owner is doing that, guess what they’re not doing? They’re not being an entrepreneur. They’re not spending time trying to find ways to build and grow their business.’’

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#99

Post by mmooss »

Someone1234 wrote: post #25

A lot of core services in the US are near collapse, because society focuses on short-term value extraction, over long term success. If you look at the US's history, there was a much better balance between the two (with the core being seen as a lever towards future wealth). You see this in education, infrastructure, public health, scientific research, housing, and energy. All foundational systems of a society, which c…

> It is an attitude problem first and foremost; and I'm not sure how you fix that.

From a certain perspective, it should be easy: That balance is the norm that has persisted through centuries; the current situation is relativley very new.

I think the important question is, why has this attitude shifted - despite having obviously bad consequences - and how is that shift being sustained?

Re: American aviation is near collapse?

#100

Post by hagbard_c »

kyralis wrote: post #81
hagbard_c wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it does not mean that. Have a look around you and you'll notice plenty of people with those inalienable characteristics in just about all positions you can think of. Some of them will have gained their positions due to preferential treatment or other 'DEI predecessors' but many just happened to have those characteristics while fitting the job profile . As Thomas Sowell said [1] and says: “Racism is not dead. But…

You're making a claim about it - twice now - that you haven't actually yet justified by any data. I'm suggesting there are, in fact, alternate explanations.

Well no, you're the one who makes unfounded claims. Show how DEI makes things better, please. Don't start redefining the term, just show how selecting people based on inalienable characteristics instead of competence improves the outcome.
Post reply on HN