Originally Posted by
ClickClickBoom
Right up to the point where you have to drive 3 hours for your chemo treatments. The people who benefit from EAS are the same people who grow the grains for bread and raise the cows that you put on your bun, as well as the corn in your gasoline. Those people pay taxes, just like you do....
I have to fly 5 hours to get to work. Should I get a subsidized positive space seat? Oh I should live in base and move, out of pocket? There are very few times where EAS makes sense. Alaska is a notable exception, but even then, EAS hasn't always been around and people have survived without it, or moved. People can move. People move all the time from the sticks to areas closer to (primarily) good medical care and other things to which they need/prefer easier access.
Again, Essential Air Service is an oxymoron. If it's by air, it isn't essential, except on islands or other places with no roads. Farmer Joe can drive. Taxpayer Bob, who has to fly 5 hours to work in cases like mine, shouldn't help pay for Farmer Joe to fly out of a podunk airport to avoid a couple hour drive. Taxpayer Bob also shouldn't ever pay for empty planes to fly around letting people build time.
We should change EAS to CAS, or convenient air service. Let the free markets decide where it is feasible to have air service, not congressmen trying to get reelected.