"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Matt Barrow" wrote

The _present_ for of funding is primarily taxes; I prefer the proposed
method of removing ATC out from under the tutalage of Congress and making
it self-supporting. Under the present funding/governance, ATC is dead
meat in a just a few years.

I'm not quite sure why that you think this is so inevitable, but I'll
accept that premise for the sake of discussion.

If we knew that this was the only step down the slippery slope that the
new fee structure was going to take, that might not be so terrible.
(unless you are the turboprop user)

The problem is, that I think it is very likely that this will be the first
of the changes that will lead us down the road towards a system like
Europe. That would be a real shame, and that would be putting it mildly.

Jim, I'm going to assume for the moment that, all of a sudden, you can
comprehend moe than two factors that inter-relate, and apply them to a
dynamic situation, rather than the static world you're used to (Have you
figured out yet who Alexis d'Toucquville is ?)

[Here's the short version for the attention span stunted]The US is the only
country in the world that has a taxpayer funded system. Congress is the
overseer. Much of the ATC system [personnel and infrastructure] is a jobs
and porkbarrell operation.

The problem is not merely funding, but GOVERNANCE. In a era when changes are
happening abruptly, a glacial political process is a recipe for disaster.

If you were in charge of the US phone system, we'd still be using operators
for long distance and some local calls.