From: nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson)
Subject: Re: Corporate Shortsightedness?
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 18:45:09 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

In article <1992Aug20.165205.26485@s1.gov> lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:
>In article <9208201420.AA28526@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> nelson_p@APOLLO.HP.COM writes:
>... The Economist
>>  says that industrial productivity in the US is the highest in the world,
>>  much higher than Europe. ...
>
> Our closest challenger in this respect is Japan, 
>>  which is not exactly a paradise for vacation-seeking workers.   
>
>	Peter Nelson, I find your attitude toward workers heartless. I
>think that those poor fellows deserve _some_ time off.

  I don't know who "those poor fellows" refer to, but most US
  and Japanese workers get 2 or 3 weeks a year.  And it's not 
  like they're chained to their desks -- read some history some-
  time -- by historical standards workers in most developed nations
  work FAR fewer hours than, say, a century ago.   The people who
  built this country worked far harder than the people who have it
  today.

  
>@ The French TGV, and even NYC-Washington Amtrak, successfully compete
>@ with airline travel
>
>>  But they are also subsidized.  Perhaps you could cite some figures from
>>  Vranich's book on the subsidies.
>
>	The French TGV's actually make money (!); the debts incurred
>in setting up the lines are expected to be paid off in about 10 years
>or so of operation,

  But note that this is only because the government stifles the
  competiton, as I in reference to European air fares.   It's also
  worth noting that due to huge government gasoline taxes the 
  Europeans pay $2.50 or more for a gallon of gas.  While this might
  produce desireable results in terms of limiting dependence on
  imported oil or reducing pollution, it is, nonetheless, a subsidy
  of European rail travel.


>>  I don't know anyone who travels by Amtrak but I know lots of people
>
>	Where do you live???

  About 30 miles west of Boston.  There's an Amtrak station about 8 miles
  from where I live, whereas the nearest major airport is in Boston.  Still
  the only people I know who *ever* traveled on Amtrak were my retired
  parents who have the time to spare, and a guy at work who's a train
  buff and went-cross country on Amtrak for his vacation.  The people
  I know who have to travel for practical reasons fly or drive.  Amtrak
  is too slow and too infrequent for anything but vacation travel 
  along most of its route.


>	Anticompetitive regulations? This may be a case of trying to
>save the airlines from themselves, in this case, disastrous price
>wars.
  
  The "disastrous price wars" are just another example of bungling
  government intervention in the economy, in this case allowing 
  bankrupt carriers to operate out of Chapter 11.  The regulations
  allow(ed) airlines such as TWA, Continental, Eastern, PanAm, 
  America West, etc to be protected from their creditors, thus 
  allowing them to undercut the prices of the healthy airlines 
  who have to pay their bills, and forcing them to meet these
  artificially low fares to avoid losing market share.   Robert
  Crandall (American's CEO) has spoken extensively on this and
  I agree with him -- Chapter 11 protection for airlines should
  have a very sharp time-limit on it, no more than a few months.  


---peter

  

  

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