The downside to cheapening every experience for the masses is that you then have to create some kind of extraordinarily untouchable / "aspirational" product for the rich. I thought it was better when flying, taking cruises, or going to Vegas were things accessible to the everyman, but which people had to really earn. As a result, they looked their best, dressed their best, and were on their best behavior. Everyone who simply needed to get somewhere could take a bus or a train. People who wanted a dumpy vacation could drive to Disneyland.
Turning middle-class totems like a once-a-year flight or once-in-ten-years cruise into a situation where 90% of it is sold as herd steerage with markups for barely better "business class" or whatever, had this one perverse effect: It separated the truly rich from the middle class, once and for all. For although the upper-upper-middle class still fly Business or First, the upper class only fly in private jets and no longer interact with the middle or lower class whatsoever. The distance between coach and business became a chasm between a commercial flight and a private jet.
It would be cool to start a middle class airline, or cruise, where everything was just expensive enough to make people act civilized.
>> There are vacation alternatives, such as land-based resorts. But they tend to be more expensive.
Yeah, then again, after watching "White Lotus" I guess we're just completely fucked. No one acts civilized anymore.
Turning middle-class totems like a once-a-year flight or once-in-ten-years cruise into a situation where 90% of it is sold as herd steerage with markups for barely better "business class" or whatever, had this one perverse effect: It separated the truly rich from the middle class, once and for all. For although the upper-upper-middle class still fly Business or First, the upper class only fly in private jets and no longer interact with the middle or lower class whatsoever. The distance between coach and business became a chasm between a commercial flight and a private jet.
It would be cool to start a middle class airline, or cruise, where everything was just expensive enough to make people act civilized.
>> There are vacation alternatives, such as land-based resorts. But they tend to be more expensive.
Yeah, then again, after watching "White Lotus" I guess we're just completely fucked. No one acts civilized anymore.