Yea, Bill,, that explains the change from the human element of the name personnel to Human REsources,,

Ever seen the movie "Catch Me If You Can"? That movie makes me miss the decades before i was born...

This to Lifter -

I agree with all you said, especially the last paragraph.  But as moderately  social liberal, and a fiscal conservative, I have to point out that in those grand old days, air travel was very expensive.  One of the reasons you saw everyone dressed nicely on airliners of the 1960s was that the class of people who could afford airline travel were generally dressed up anyhow.

When Reagan ( I know, your favorite pres. ) pushed thru the deregulation of the airlines in 1986, the old Civil Aeronautics Board went away, and with it went the regulated, higher fares that guaranteed every airline a profit.  Hence, competition began setting fares.

I remember when Southwest and Peoples Express came on line, and undercut all of the major airlines.

We all know you can't buy a BMW for the price of a Honda, hence, the majors had to downscale service, meals, etc. to compete with the discount carriers.  So, today we've got an airline system like you described.

But also, we've got a system that allows grandma to afford to fly across the continent to see her kids and grandkids at Thanksgiving, and allows young families to afford to take themselves and their kids to Disneyworld.

Everything is a compromise.