The Friendly Why's

Everybody knows that flying commercially is the safest way to travel these days. But, what everyone doesn't realize is the reason why. It's certainly not because it is the safest to begin with; it's not. In fact, flying is inherently the most dangerous, by far! So why has it become so safe and becoming even more safe overall despite vastly increasing traffic and risks?

Why indeed. The answer is plain and obvious: profit! But, not just any old profit; it is all about who profits, or technically, WHAT profits. In the airline industry, safety profits, and so safety wins. If our government ran the airlines with the same blame-profit methodology that it uses to run our social institutions then air travel safety would be consistent with its intrinsic nature, and the government officials in charge would blame the "nature of air travel" for their failure to provide safety in exactly the same way they blame "human nature" for their failure to keep us safe in public and even in our homes (or, more notoriously in recent history, when catastrophe strikes; 9-11, Katrina, school shootings, etc...)

And if simple logic and reason alone isn't enough to convince you of this plain truth, then you have only to consider the safety record of the USSR government ran airline before the collapse of that social system. In Russia, when an airplane crashed, the government officials in charge made a fast scramble to point fingers and avoid blame - because that's how government officials "profit". The result is not only a failure to find the cause of the crash, but in most cases new problems end up being introduced that only caused more crashes. (A good example of this was the government instituted policy of hiring only retired military pilots for the commercial jets. The result was a notoriously dangerous clique of hot dog pilots that did nothing to decrease the accident rates but drove the passenger quotas into the ground.)

If we want to reduce crime, and "protect our children", then we must change how people profit from crime. Currently politicians, lawyers, and "law enforcement professionals" profit only if crime ensues - so why do we act so surprised when it does?

Have you ever noticed the consistency of the message in popular media against privatization of government services, even though in most (admittedly, not all, but certainly most) cases such privatized "profit driven" services have been proven to out perform government services by tens or even hundreds of times (depending on how and what is measured)? Do you really doubt that our government is still in the propaganda business? If you do then you are as much to blame for MY crimes (serial child rape and murder) as I am. It may not have been your hand that wielded the weapon, but it was your mentality.

(J.D. February 1, 2015)