[no_wizard]

I don’t see how they were ridiculous on the face it. The economy during that regulatory period grew into a huge juggernaut.

Most of the R&D that laid the future of the world happened during that period. The middle class grew to its largest portion during that period.

I don’t think the economy was hamstrung in the least

[slibhb]

Rose colored glasses.

The classic example is airline deregulation which happened under Carter. The real cost of flights is way, way down since then. But this doesn't stop people from complaining about how "flying is a worse experience now" and wishing for a return to inane regulations.

[Der_Einzige]

I want more expensive flights because the rabble shouldn’t be flying. Flying is a worse experience now and cheap flights like spirit is how you get the Burger King crown guy being a common occurrence on flights.

[sleight42]

Were you alive in the 80s? Flying really was better back then. The food was edible. The seats weren't optimized for torture.

"Inane regulations", however misguided, generally exist to prevent the Torment Nexus. PE devolves companies into the Torment Nexus to create more profit.

[slibhb]

I'm aware that flying was more enjoyable pre reform. And we could make it that enjoyable today by inflating the prices by 50-100%. The food would be better, the seats would be bigger, and planes would be emptier.

But the downside is that flying would be for rich people, just like it was pre-reforms. The poors would have to take trains or drive. Is that a good trade-off?

And to top it off, if you want to pay for a premium flying experience today, you can! For similar prices (to pre-reform flights, in real terms) you can book a "luxury flight".

Like I said, rose colored glasses.

[red-iron-pine]

> I don’t think the economy was hamstrung in the least

post WW2 the world basically outside of the US blew up and the US pumped a ton of money into europe+asia to bolster it.

it's easy to be #1 when everything else burnt down