"The profits of the shareholders matter more to Boeing than customer safety.
Republicans really hope the public understands that letting 300 to 400 people die several times a year is simply an economic tradeoff necessary for shareholder satisfaction.
Like the tech companies, we fear "activist" hedge fund managers like Chris Hohn who may order the board to resign, agitate for mass layoffs, manipulate stock prices, or other self-harming conduct."
@Hash@lzg@petrillic Airbus obvs looks better right now but they also have a serious order backlog (like in the thousands), just like Boeing.
No one is able to make planes fast enough, airlines can't just switch and buy Airbuses instead. They are indeed too big to fail, because the industry needs them to keep going. But better.
I have family in three countries now - thankfully mostly within Europe - and it pains me how much more complicated, expensive and unplannable rail travel is (looking at you, SJ.se) compared to flights.
@sarajw@Hash@lzg@petrillic yes it's a shame. And yes, prices are crazy high ! But how can we expect a long distance train industry to develop while it's concurrenced by an aviation industry that allowed to cause that much pollution for free ?
To be fair, the flight costs are rising - if we could have booked the train at the same cost or even somewhat more we'd have done it on the spot. They were definitely comparable.
It was the lack of being able to plan ahead that put us in a bind - @jon would agree with me on this specific SJ grumble!
@lzg@petrillic I fear that when it does eventually affect their financial performance they are counting on the govt to bail them out because Boeing is “too big to fail”. I hope I’m wrong.
@petrillic@wyatt I don’t think this balance is per se indicative of a problem.
As an aviator I understand that the only 100% safe flight is the one that doesn’t leave the ground. Boeing must make a product that is mostly safe and also turns a profit.
The problem I see is they’ve focused too much on financial performance over safety. And that’s the wrong play.
@petrillic If anyone wants to know how Boeing went from an extremely reliable airplane manufacturer to the dumpster fire that it is, I suggest they watch the episode of John Oliver’s This Week Tonight about it.
The merger with morally absent McDonald Douglas was only part of it.
@petrillic perhaps they'd understand if they were personally responsible for their lack of care and respect for the passengers, of course with the kind of protection they have it's hardly a possibility.
@pomme_s@Krisss@petrillic possibly! no boeing means no airbus, and airplanes were only needed for business for about three decades, during which it wasn't very safe or predictable
@Seilenos@petrillic My Toyota Corolla has never dropped out of the sky without warning and ploughed into the ground at hundreds of miles an hour due to a software “feature”.
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