Originally Posted by
kokonutz
The ultimate result of totally free unregulated markets tends to be oligopolies and monopolies.
And too many of us are all about buying the fake dream that we are a part of, or party to, the party.
The Kochs wouldn't be caught dead flying in CX or LH F (let alone precious AA's F). Commercial is for suckers and the little people. @:-)
This is what I don't get. I can buy C or F on any flight for cash with dynamic pricing. Using points I only have a binary option: published points fare or no fly at all.
That's not supply and demand. That's not how markets are meant to work.
I'll try not to get too far into OMNI territory here, but most libertarians I am aware of are what I call I-bertarians. In other words (and to try to keep this out of OMNI territory), GTL thinks that if there were no government, no arbitrary big companies, and no society,
I would be allowed to do what
I want: which is to sell my award services in a
free market where fixed award charts and arcane rules would make it better for the average guy to need
my services to walk his way through booking an award flight. And
I can make money.
It's (and it's where I'm veering back into OMNI territory) all the Ayn Rand wannabees want to be. And, from my perspective, where GTL goes off the rails is ignoring that there is a government (and understanding the inefficiencies in any large organization) that is essentially us, there are big companies, and there is a society. So, the Great Thought Leader tries to play both sides of the fence: arguing for an award system that makes his business necessary while arguing against a likely foreseeable free market evolution of the award system.