They dramatically raise the hours of work necessary to generate a mile of air travel. In thinking about our paradox, it is well to remember that there is no conflict between creativity and chaos. Think of all of those great Russian writers in the last half of the 19th century - Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevski, Gogol, Chekov, Pushkin. Their genius flourished even as their society was collapsing. Chaos can be fun and exciting.
Chaos can be a spur to invention and creativity.
But chaos doesn't lead to productivity growth. All of the security personnel at our airports are a reflection of chaos. Auto congestion is a form of chaos. If a society wants productivity growth, it needs the right mix of order and the room to do new things that chaos creates. When it comes to that bottom line, which economists like myself love to talk about, there is a genuine mystery.