Gobbledy Gook
I understand your sentiment. I am sure many do. But the real issue is that it is not more expensive to do something properly, safely and in compliance with the letter and spirit of laws and regulations.
I suspect many readers here would support the view that in fact doing something properly is cheaper than constantly having management in "putting out bushfires" mode in so many areas. And they would be dead right.
If you re-regulate the industry then some would still try to rort the system to make bigger profits than the next guy.
The issue is not $39 fares. They're here to stay and part of a sophisticated yield management system and are not the reason that corners are cut. Corners are cut and limits pushed because there is a mindset among those who have never had airline dirt under their fingernails that only by pushing limits can you get the cost base right. They don't know what they don't know.
Poorly constructed rosters, management by ideology, very tight fuel policy, minimal ground support, divide and conquer non-union contracts, off-shore basing, over-reliance on MELs, reliance on fixing mistakes AFTER they've happened. These things cost big bucks wherever they happen. They do not save money, even in the short term.
There was NO cost reason behind the stuffed up "TOGA Tap" go-around at MEL in an A320. It was simply inept management within flight ops. Ended up costing a fortune in management time. Robust QA, CAR 217 check and training and reporting systems would have picked up that there was in that instance a poorly thought through but commonly used "Unwritten" SOP. Probably many others. Who would know if you're not looking?
Finding out what's in the "Unwritten" ops manuals is a huge job and it's absolutely central to a Chief Pilot's domain. And hence central to what the Regulator must require of the operator. Waiting until the aluminium scrapes the runway is way too late. KLM thought their procedures were fine until Tenerife. Qantas did until Bangkok.
Do not ever fall for the argument that only by pushing limits can the business be viable. That is used by those who don't know to push the one barrow that suits their ideology.
In our profession, "Doing it Right" is the best, cheapest and most efficient way. Somewhere out at the side of this debate, barely visible in the shadows, are the poor souls who over the years have paid the ultimate price for someone else trying to save money and in the end costing more than their savings could ever have been. They are our silent allies in this.