Passenger Bill Of Rights

Lately there have been calls for Congress to pass a "Passenger Bill of Rights" in order to protect passengers from ordeals such as what passengers of JetBlue suffered this weekend when they were forced to sit in a plane on the runway for 10 plus hours.

The idea of Congress passing legislation to solve a problem that very rarely happens is just insane. There are ways of dealing with this problem without invoking the heavy hand of government. This is a situation which can easily be dealt with in the free market. Just based on this incident, the airlines are going to start falling all over themselves coming up with their own Bill of Rights. Hopefully this will obviate the need for Congress to act and we can forget the whole mess.

Lest you think this is one of those cases where government really should get involved, let's look at a few other idea and see if you think they would be good laws too:

• Internet Users Bill Of Rights - Congress could pass a law that websites must provide a minimum standard of usability and availability. Don't users have a right to access their favorite sites whenever they want to?
• Highway Users Bill Of Rights - Every major highway, freeway, turnpike, etc. should be forced to maintain a minimum traffic flow so as not to keep drivers waiting in traffic. Who cares how much money it would cost to build roads to accommodate this requirement.
  
• Movie Goer's Bill Of Rights - With the crap that's been coming out of Hollywood, studios should be forced to submit their films to a government oversight committee so that bad movies never make it to the big screen. All of the bad movies out there waste the time and money of the patrons as well as the electricity, etc. that it takes to show a film.

Those are just three examples of other places government should interfere with private businesses. Isn't it great that the government is there to help us with even the tiniest of problems?