Top De-Regulation A term used to describe the freeing of corporations and entire industry groups from laws that protect the consumer, the citizen, the environment and the worker. The deregulation of the cable industry and the telephone industry are illustrative of the effects of de-regulation. Service with both indutries has deteriorated as telephone companies cut people who supplied information and repairment who maintained the systems, and cable companies have arbitrarily decided what channels to carry and which to ignore. Cable chanels, once touted as 'advertising free TV', has become as advertising laden as the four big networks. Deregulation of the airlines was, in the end, a disaster.
Airline safety is now dependent simply on economics.
The result is the air traffic controllers are overworked and suffer with ancient equipment. Airline repairs are made by repair companies that submit the lowest bids. And crowding in the airplane itself is so extreme that one feels as if stuffed into a sardine can. And, worst of all, small markets are no longer served by major airlines. Airlines can go for the most profitable routes, meaning the small cities and towns are ignored as unprofitable.