Originally Posted by PJ2
We could say it is cultural but I think of it also as a political economy which has been developing since the early 70's, sometimes loosely known as "neo-liberalism" - the notion that privatization, de-regulation, and "free enterprise" will provide "market solutions" for all problems including the ones you have just outlined.
I will counter with this.
A market solution has never been tried.
A market solution would exclude government "oversight" in all ways and safety would be dictated by the customers. In such an environment, airline X could sell tickets based entirely on price and airline Y could sell tickets on properly maintained birds - properly trained pilots - adequate fuel loads, etc.
I'm not necessarily endorsing such a solution, but it certainly has not been tried up to now.