On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:57:48 +0200 'Mxsmanic'
posted this onto rec.travel.air:

hummingbird writes:

Underlying my previous comment was the possibility that the US
fed govt are quietly feeding taxpayers money into smaller airports
to develop them, thereby helping Boeing who want to encourage
point-to-point flying in its 787 Dreamliner instead of airlines using
the A380 in/out of large hubs. I think it's called protectionism.

Hardly. The United States isn't like Europe. Practically every European
company with more than 100 employees is in bed with one or more governments,
and may even be wholly or partially owned by governments. You don't see that
kind of incest in the U.S., which is one reason why the U.S. has a healthier
economy.

That is entirely untrue. Remind me of how many of Bush's first cabinet
had direct links to big oil and/or the Jewish Lobby and/or Israel. I
often wonder why the American people have handed over their govt
to Israel.

I am no advocate of Euro business because it does co-operate with govt
far too much IMHO, especially the banks. The EU Tax Directive was
one very good example which effectively killed off private offshore
banking without so much as a whimper.

But for sure, big money and govt are much closer in bed in the US
than in Europe or any other part of the world. American foreign policy
is known to have a huge commercial element behind it. Then of course
there's the Jewish Lobby...and MS's new found friendship with the
music/film industry reflected in Vista DRM controls.

By the original definition of fascism, the US is much closer to it
than any other major western nation.


Your speculation above sounds like a rather farfetched conspiracy theory.
Building an entire infrastructure to please a single private company? I don't
think so. My guess is that the two notions are completely independent.

That may be so. But it's been long alleged that the US fed govt
overpays Boeing for its military planes as an indirect subsidy to
Boeing's commercial plane business. Long ago, it was the fed govt
who helped to kill off Concorde to protect US aircraft plane makers
using the lame excuse of noise etc.
The US fed govt also heavily subsidies American agricultural industry
despite its frequent claims to want free markets and free competiton.
Ask the rice farmers of Ghana.


Besides, Airbus is so poorly managed that it can self-destruct all by itself,
and the market for the A380 in the U.S. is likely to be extremely limited,
anyway, as the current modest fleet of 747s demonstrates.

ISTR that Boeing's Execs have had their fair share of chaos and
corruption in recent times.

Clearly there is a strong difference between Boeing and Airbus as to
how they see the plane market developing and I would expect the fed
govt to do whatever it can to support Boeing's direction.

I don't think the A380 was intended for the US domestic market.
Those two big economies in Asia are where the growing market is...


But of course we know that the US is all in favour of free trade
and doesn't indulge in such tactics.

It's a lot better than Europe, where major contracts are won by bribes,
governments spy on foreign competitors,

ISTR that it was Boeing who used the fed's Echelon satellite spy
system to spy on Airbus contract negotiations some while ago.
Apart from that, industrial espionage goes on by all countries.


every sound business decision is
overruled by a Eurocrat, and no company of significant size can be operated
without government interference.

You have an unreal view of Europe. Yes, it is becoming a totalitarian
nightmare of Orwellian proportions but the US is also not far behind.
American people have surrendered freedom in return for security -
but will get neither.

I make these comments not because I am anti-American but because
America used to be the only place where freedom and liberty still
existed and there was still hope for mankind.....