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> I have rarely had anyone complain to me about my seat recline, and nobody has ever offered me money, or anything else of value, in exchange for sitting upright. I bet no one has ever made that offer. Saying that "oh, no one has offered to pay me to stop something, therefore people can't care all that much" is the Homo Economicus fallacy gone wild. Would a majority of people accept that deal, if someone brazen enough actually offered? I doubt it. It would just cause needless conflict in a small space where everyone is stuck together for hours and hours, which is why people don't do it in the first place. > When you buy an airline ticket, one of the things you’re buying is the right to use your seat’s reclining function. "Rights" aren't god-given things. You can't look up in the cosmic rule book who has the right to do what. The argument is how we, as a society, want to allocate that right, and just stating "I bought the ticket therefore I own the right" isn't really useful. I'm not coming down on either side of the Great Recliner Debate, but this article kind of irks me. We don't work the way the author is assuming, and I don't think saying "I have X right, pay me to stop if you don't like it, even though such a payment is unusual, socially uncomfortable, and potentially insulting" really adds much value to the conversation on this (frankly largely irrelevant) conversation. |