Originally Posted by
Yournamehere
Now you're starting to really stretch reality - the US government can't afford to provide healthcare to its own citizens, let alone fund an airline to move them around the place. So yes, there would certainly be hard times.
Additionally, the ME3 don't use tax payers money to fund the airlines because there is so little tax paid by the citizens (a mere 5% VAT in the UAE and no income tax etc.). Myriad other social and human rights issues aside, there is no robbing of the poor to pay for the tax cuts of the rich in the Middle East.
I don't have a dog in this fight but it pisses me off when Americans whinge about this issue when the real fact is simply that the US carriers offer a comparatively crap product so go running to their politicians when they're the ones getting a towelling from the competition.
The same thing happened when Airbus won the tankering contracting from the USAF - Boeing went crying to Washington and basically used extortion tactics to have the contract referred again so they could win it. No doubt after some entirely above board and legitimate lobbying.
So don't defend the US carriers from some holier than thou position because the situation in US politics and industry stinks to high heaven and complaints like this against foreign competition are simply hypocritical.
Well, it's clear your whinge is nothing more than one about American healthcare not being "free", air carrier service, tanker contracts etc. etc., none of which hold any weight in your argument that Chapter 11 equates to a government subsidy. Btw, the US Gov spends about 1 trillion USD annually on it's citizen's health care. To put that in perspective, Delta, United, and American Airlines each have operating expenses of around 40 billion. The ME3 received about 40 billion in subsidies over the last 10 years.
However, if as you assert Chapter 11 is a "subsidy" merely because it's a legal mechanism linked to a government-run court system, then isn't the illegality of Unions and right to strike to negotiate for higher worker salaries and benefits a "government subsidy" the ME3 enjoy?
There's some real stink for you and the ME3 all operate under that condition; No Unions. No collective bargaining. No striking or though will go to jail. No Rights. The power to dictate salary and conditions, no negotiating necessary, ever. Most who go on about the "crap" American product and the "superior" ME one always do so while consciously avoiding talking about the crap salaries and working conditions and no Rights of those providing it while ignoring that almost every aspect of US airlines are unionized and working under negotiated contracts.
I spent over a decade living and working in the ME myself and have loads colleagues working at ME as well as US airlines, and any comparison as far as being a worker bee employee is concerned there's no comparison. Just like Dubai loves to advertize and present it's shiny modern bizarrechitecture to the world but hide the deaths and conditions of those who build it, the shiny wide-body aircraft hide the lack of modern work rules and conditions. The idea that any of the ME3 are "modern" entities of the business world just because they have shiny aircraft is a joke. They might fool some people, they may have fooled you, they certainly fool themselves, but they operate in the corporate Dark Ages.
Having spent over a decade in the Kingdom alone plus too much time in the UAE, I have to laugh at your statement "There's no robbing of the poor to pay for the tax cuts for the rich in the Middle East". The truly poor of the region, the expat Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, Malaysians, Egyptians, etc etc etc doing the actual work in the UAE and the Kingdom, Kuwait, Bahrain...are robbed every day of the little money they make by the incestuous, power family-held phone companies, housing groups, utility companies, and so on where there is no competition, there's only another well-placed relative's turn at squeezing them out of every Riyal or Dirham possible before it can be sent home. They're also robbed of their lives with no recourse for abuse, lured there by false promises.
How anyone from a worker-respecting, modern society where their rights are recognized and protected can sing the praises of companies literally and figuratively built on the backs of those who have virtually none is beyond me, but I guess that's what spending millions on Public Relations, glossy magazine ads, scenes in Hollywood movies, and sponsoring soccer teams gets you.
Another Btw...the bottom 45% of income earners in the U.S. don't pay any Federal income tax. Quite obviously, you didn't know that so if you want to talk about the government "robbing" a certain level of earners to pay for things please learn the facts instead of false rhetoric that seems handy to make an inaccurate, even ridiculous comparison with as you did.