The nineteenth-century French economist Emile Dupuit pointed to the early railways as an
example:
"It is not because of the few thousand francs which would have to be spent to put a roof over
the third-class carriage or to upholster the third-class seats that some company or other has
open carriages with wooden benches ... What the company is trying to do is prevent the
passengers who can pay the second-class fare from travelling third class; it hits the poor, not
because it wants to hurt them, but to frighten the rich ... And it is again for the same reason
that the companies, having proved almost cruel to the third-class passengers and mean to the
second-class ones, become lavish in dealing with first-class customers. Having refused the poor what is necessary, they give the rich what is superfluous."
The shoddy quality of most airport departure lounges across the world is surely part of the
same phenomenon.
If the free departure areas became comfortable, then airlines would no longer be able to sell
business-class tickets on the strength of their 'executive' lounges.
The message is clear: keep paying for your expenseiv seats, or next time you might be the wrong side of the flight attendant.
