Oooooo, Government Coverups!

Well, actually it *is* a little bit disturbing, despite the silly images conjured by such a phrase. Apparently NASA has been withholding information regarding a safety study of air flight, and then actually told people that the reason they didn’t release it was that it would affect consumer confidence and bankrupt the airlines. Crazy stuff…

The crazy thing is that I can actually understand and sympathize with such a decision, despite the fact that I am indignant about having been lied to. A serious shake-up of the airline industry would result in a shorter-term collapse of air travel volume, although I think the long-term effects would be an emergence of new, more streamlined companies (think JetBlue and Southwest and Ted) from the ashes (and more importantly from the bankruptcy-borne capital assets from the dying behemoth airlines). This would seem to suggest a long-term benefit, although the consequences of the disruption in air travel in the interim would doubtless have some far-reaching consequences that may very well outweigh the benefits of allowing the industry to collapse and rejuvenate.