<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RustyC:
It may put me at odds with some on here, but I think some things should not be left up to the market.
Why have seats at all? They could do away with them entirely and sell standing room and get a lot more people in. If they priced the tickets low enough, they'd probably sell out. But that meddlesome government (or, in some places, the "gummint") probably would fuss about safety or health risks or some other thing.
It'd be unfortunate if the government had to set minimum standards for seat width and pitch, but if the airlines keep pushing the envelope, then I think it's an appropriate response. The 737-800 is a good case in point, as it violated a long-held seat-width standard - and on a plane that can fly long trans-cons. Anybody actually making seats narrower these days is just asking for trouble.
It becomes more than just a marketplace issue when health and safety are concerned. In a perfect world airlines would compete on something other than trying to cram the plane too tightly and would draw the line in the sand somewhere; in the real world sometimes only the fear of a lawsuit or a government mandate is an effective deterrent. Some things are fair game for competition (am changing airlines this year over FF program changes, for example), but I think others should not be.</font>