HIGHLAND, UT | 10 April 2008 | It is a scene straight out of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. People standing around waiting to get home. Government officials demanding action. Regulators inspecting shoddy work from ambivalent workers. Chaos everywhere. And no one willing to take responsibility. Only it isn’t the train, it’s the airline industry. It has nearly 200,000 people stranded in airports around the country and over two thousand flights cancelled this week with some projecting effects lasting into June. Atlas Shrugged is a work of fiction, but its real life counterpart is showing events are not mere imaginations in an overactive mind.

In September 2006, Boeing announced their MD-80 series airliners were having difficulty with wiring issues, the result of which are short-circuit fires in the wheel wells and possible fuel tank explosions. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) called for inspections and maintenance on every MD-80 in use. They gave the airline companies a year and a half to comply. That time has elapsed and the airliners have yet to fully comply. Airlines say they have no choice but to cancel flights this week; the FAA has been lax on their inspections;  Congressmen such as James Oberstar (D. Minnesota), chairman of the house Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, are angry at the situation; and airline customers are upset over the inconvenience put upon them this week. No one accepts the responsibility to this week’s chaos; yet, all of these groups are responsible for the decisions each one has made, and each one has contributed to today’s challenges at the airports. Specifically because agency implies stewardship.

Key Points

• Boeing built the MD-80 series between 1980 and 1999. The aircraft in question are not new. Boeing acted in good faith to announce the problems.
• Airline companies used their agency to wait until too late rather than to stagger their inspection times rotating planes in and out of use until each plane in question had received its inspection and was repaired if necessary. Their procrastination resulted in a mandatory grounding of all MD-80 aircraft at one time, nearly half of American Airline’s fleet. This has put a huge strain on air travel this week.
• The Commissars (FAA) were lax in what they consider their stewardship by allowing the airliners to wait so long before performing their maintenance. The recent tightening of their policy has contrbuted to the airlines grounding so many planes at once and the many related cancellations. One regulator ironically named Tierney (say the name aloud) sounds like she might have just stepped off the movie set of Angelina Jolie’s Atlas Shrugged with her lines perfectly memorized:

We are aware and sympathetic…100,000 people being stranded is extraordinary…but the role is clear, it’s a regulator’s role and you have to enforce the regulations. We understand the disruption this causes, but [the airlines] had 18 months to complete the work.”

Her main concern here is not the lives she is charged with protecting by ordering the grounding of the planes. It is her own job. it’s almost as if she derives a small amount of pleasure in the chaos her organization has helped to cause. Tyranny? First rate!

• Government officials such as Oberstar, whom the International Herald Tribune identifies as “a long-time activist on aviation safety,” tend to look upon their tenure as moral watchdogs. This is not his stewardship, though progressively it has indeed been usurped as such. Jefferson penned, “…mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable that to right themselves…” (Declaration of Independence). This is apparently one of those sufferable evils.
• The customer is also partially to blame in this instance. Though government has usurped the stewardship of safety from the individual, the individual has not protested this usurpation. People, collectively, tend to hand their liberties over to their ruler. This always comes at the expense of agency. This agency is always best left in the individual’s hands.

Conclusion

Man’s agency is directly tied to his stewardships. He cannot discard one without losing the other. And he cannot keep one without likewise keeping the other. When man allows government to creep into his life, he is in effect giving up his stewardship and agency. Though it may appear difficult to conceive of ways for the individual to turn his brain on and be responsible for his own ideas, there are ways, no matter how small, in which he may exercise his agency. An increased understanding of the governing principles can aid the individual to make better decisions. A portion of this is to allow the market to play itself out. If an airline is lax in maintaining its aircraft, it usually also shows in other areas and people will naturally gravitate toward its competitors. But when government usurps that stewardship away from the market, people tend to turn their brains off thinking Big Brother is watching out for them. This is poor practice that usually leads to higher costs of doing business. Like 200,000 people stranded hundreds of miles away from home for a few days.

Action Items

1. Read Atlas Shrugged and pay particular attention to the mindset and behavior patterns of those who reject stewardship as compared to those who readily accept it.
2. Evaluate the areas where you have stewardship in your life. Are there times when you act in ways that might destroy your agency and therefore rob you of your stewardships? Adjust them. Resolve to retain both your agency and your stewardship.
3. Practice due diligence in the areas where the government tends to regulate. There are many, including air travel. Others you may want to consider include the medical industry, financial, foods and nutrition, and even the law. Don’t just take “their” word for it. Weigh your options. Ask the hard questions.

MRFC Principles:  (3, 4, 9, 11, 12)

References

Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. Signet Classics. New York, 1957 

Schlangenstein, Mary and john Hughes. American Air Scrubs 933 More Flights for Wirign Fixes. Bloomberg.com. April 10, 2008.

Jeff Bailey. American Cancels 1,000 Flights in New Sign of Trouble. New York Times. April 9, 2008.

Micheline Maynard and Matthew L. Wald. More U.S. Flight Delays Loom as Safety Reviews Expand. International Herald Tribune. April 10, 2008.

Dan Caterinicchia (AP), Delays may Surpass American’s 2,400. Yahoo! Finance. April 10, 2008.

Why Cancel Those Flights? Sources: FAA, The Associated Press. Austin American-Statesman. April 10, 2008.