Tenerife, Bookstores and Libraries

This week marked the 30th anniversary of the disaster at Tenerife. For those too young to remember it, on March 27, 1977, two 747s collided on the runway at Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Five hundred eighty-two people died, making this the worst aviation accident in history (unless you consider 9/11/2001 to be an accident). It seems like just yesterday for us old-timers. This—two jumbo jets carrying passengers slamming into each other and burning—was everyone’s nightmare come true. The story dominated the media, and we gobbled up the details as fast as they came out. Those of you who don’t remember it should look it up on Google. It is a fascinating, albeit awful, story involving diverted flights, weather, and even a small terrorist bomb, though not on either airplane Change of subject… I visited one popular bookstore in the past week, and one good library. The bookstore had a coffee shop inside, the library did not. In fact, the library doesn’t allow coffee inside at all. It occurred to me that this was a microcosm of the difference between the free market and the guvmint. Many, if not most, large bookstores now have a coffee shop on the premises. Most, if not all, libraries do not. The bookstores have them because years ago the industry found that coffee shops increase book sales. It is as simple as that. Customers want them. There are many reasons not to have a coffee shop, but customers want them so bookstores provide them. Libraries, being supported by guvmints, think they don’t have to please customers, so they explain why coffee shops are a bad idea, and that’s that. Seems typical to me. Businesses listen to customers and adapt as needed; guvmints heed the reasons why not. That’s exactly what the guvmint is doing in aviation. They can tell you a bunch of reasons why they need more money. Other aviation entities don’t have that option. They have to adapt and solve their own problems to the customers’ satisfaction or they go broke. Does anybody remember Braniff, Eastern, Pan Am, and People Express? They didn’t adapt. Neither did the guvmint. They didn’t keep up the systems needed to get the job done, now they want a bailout. I don’t agree. We'd love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab at the top.