When you get bad news and the
shoulder shrug, well, sure, it’s “the economy.” It's also something more. Barring natural disasters,
flood and drought and the like, “just the economy” is often an excuse that lets someone—an
individual or a corporate body—off the hook.
The excuse hides the big uglies:
greed and deceit. But even more often, it hides the commonplace ones. "Really bad decision-making,” including when it comes to voting, is one we can all own now and then.
If defrocked McCain advisor Phil Gramm really meant the “the
leaders” when he said we’ve “sort of become a nation of whiners,” then I’m with
him. Don’t hear anyone taking responsibility for bad policy or no policy,
neglecting to get the right information, bad judgment and all the other
failures of leadership, do you?
Two more failures really matter: lack
of courage and imagination.
Take Midwest Airlines. Go ahead: no
one else wants to right now. When things got bad, did it set out to distinguish
itself from other airlines that were serving up deteriorating service?
Nope. It jumped right in to join the
race to the bottom, or what’s more generously called “adopting a survival
strategy.” After all, almost everybody else is doing it, according to Stealing
Share, a marketing firm, in their study of American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, and United
airlines.
The key word is “almost.” The
airlines that are bucking the trend to advertise relentlessly what they all do
equally badly (checking bags, being on time) are doing better. Southwest, the #1 airline, posted
its 68th straight profitable quarter in the beginning of 2008. They
did it on actually costing less, not just claiming to, and selling freedom, not
just transportation.
The others, you can’t tell apart
even with a scorecard. “Worse than before, same as the other guys, and a lot
less of it!” Welcome aboard the bandwagon, Midwest!
The marketers say that especially
when the economy’s rough, you have to change the game. Think outside the box.
Or maybe back in, if the box holds cookies and the best care in the air. People's lives and the community are at stake.
The economy, like Pogo's enemy, is us.
