It’s likely by now you’ve heard about United Airlines forcibly ejecting a passenger from a flight. The flight was overbooked, there weren’t enough volunteers to stay behind, so a computer chose passengers at random to leave behind.
Mollie Hemingway has a good post at The Federalist entitled “How Basic Economics Could Have Helped United Avoid Its PR Disaster,” and it’s right.
Problem is, basic economics has long helped airlines avoid such a disaster. It’s odd that United lost track of this particular parcel.
It was solved decades ago by economist Julian Simon, even despite opposition from such disparate thinkers as Ralph Nader and Milton Friedman.
