You're both making fair points, and there is truth to both viewpoints. The US now has a SERVICE based economy due to the loss of manufacturing to overseas entities. The airline industry IS a service based industry so you can't really compare it to an import/export based economy. US GDP has been sliding downward from BOTH the net loss of well paying jobs AND the loss of export output/manufacturing. Read the book, "The Wal-Mart Effect". Basically, by corporations attempting to get a competitive edge and making their products cheaper for US consumers through outsourcing they have killed the very jobs and consumer spending power that makes them have a sustainable business model. Airline management has been following this trend for over a decade, however it's obvious to me that it's unsustainable and needs some (or lots of) "adjustment".