Delta is being sued again because of this case of a passenger being bitten by a “support animal.”

We talked about this awhile back. There are an abundance of causes.

Brontosaurostructure

Brontosaurostructure is when a system is so big and so old that it is practically impossible to change fundamentally. The airlines are the classic example of this. The system was developed to move people as luxuriously and expensively as possible from point to point. It’s evolved into a system to cram as many humans as miserably as possible into a metal tube. Either way, you’re talking about basically the same setup: Terminals, equipment, baggage handling and the like is essentially what it was when the system was first invented.

Lack of Alignment and the Amorphous They

In this case, “they” somehow made the decision that it was okay to allow dogs on the flight. It may have started out as a goodwill gesture to people who “need” support animals, but because planes were set up for people and not dogs, there were bound to be problems. Here is another case where I would be willing to bet a sum of money that the actual individual who made the decision to allow dogs in an airplane can’t be found. You can bet it wasn’t a flight attendant, baggage handler, or plane cleaner that has to clean up the mess

Widespread Panic

In the last few years, somehow, there has been a big increase in the number of “emotional support animals”. This is because in one point of view, anxiety disorder is a medical condition, and in theory, you can’t discriminate against someone who has one. Reportedly up to 25 percent of the population is in this situation, which to me is very disturbing on its face.

The airlines thereby have a problem: They get sued if the discriminate against the anxious. They get sued if they let a dog on the plane and it bites somebody. They are not set up for animals in the first place. Who can blame them for being annoyed.

Who wins?

The lawyers. When an organization, and a society, gets so big and complex that a person can make a career out of obstructing productive activity, we are all in trouble.

Here’s my episode of “Why People Don’t Do their Jobs” on this topic.

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