Posted on 01/04/2006 8:11:45 AM PST by billorites
Taking up the study of economics can help unravel many mysteries of history, among which the pressing issuing: Whatever happened to sexy stewardesses? I don't mean as individuals, but as an institution, as a cultural icon, as a persistent commercial expectation.
There was a time when a jetsetting playboy was pictured as having a stewardess or two on his arm. On TV, one guy would be trying to get some other guy to be the necessary second guy for a double date: "They're stewardesses, Bob ... stewardesses!"
Today? To be a "flight attendant" is just a profession like any other, sexless and devoid of meaning beyond passenger management.
Several theories immediately come to mind, such as the observation that everything is in decline, due in part of the campaign to eradicate conspicuous signs of sex differences from mainstream commercial culture (thereby forcing it all into the red-light district).
Or we might come up with a more economically sophisticated answer, such as: Supply and Demand. More passengers means more stewardesses means less exacting selection standards means moving lower toward the hump of the bell curve.
Here's an answer that most people would never think of: Price Fixing
Yes, it's possible that there are fewer attractive stewardesses for similar reasons to there being fewer nuts in a Baby Ruth, or rip-off "toy" "surprises" in my childhood box of Cracker Jack: namely that the inflation of the money supply, in addition to raising prices, has reduced quality available per dollar.
Let's review the basics.
A price ceiling, when legal prices are not allowed to rise to their market-clearing level, causes shortages. There are more buyers at the legal price than there are sellers. Only the most efficient producers can afford to produce the controlled goods, because only they still have a margin between their costs and the legal price. Less efficient producers stop producing the controlled goods, steering those resources where there's more profit, or at least less risk of loss. Price ceilings explain bread riots and the so-called oil crisis of the 1970s. (No, it wasn't French aristocrats or Arab sheiks at fault.)
A price floor, when legal prices are not allowed to fall to their market level, causes gluts. There are fewer willing buyers than there are willing producers at the inflated prices. For agricultural goods, the result is that the government buys up all the surplus with coercively acquired funds. This hurts domestic taxpayers and foreign farmers. It also steers resources away from the goods people actually want, thereby hurting consumers as a whole. A too-seldom recognized form of price-floor-fixing is minimum wage law. Unemployment is a labor glut. Same economic laws apply.
So that's the review of basic price fixing, but the above summary assumes uniform goods at established quantity and quality.
With many goods, quality can vary significantly, not always in easy-to-measure ways. If people are used to paying 25¢ for a Baby Ruth, to use Rothbard's example, then the Baby Ruth company is going to be loath to raise the price to 50¢, even if inflation has doubled all their input costs.
What they do instead is cut whatever costs they can to keep the price at a quarter. Maybe they cut the number of peanuts in half, dilute the chocolate with cheaper vegetable oil, and make the candy bar 10% smaller. The product looks the same on the outside, and many people won't notice the difference on the inside. But fans of the Baby Ruth chocolate bar will notice that the quality has fallen.
In my case, it wasn't the falling quality of the candy I noticed, but the ever-crummier toy surprise in a box of Cracker Jack. Grownups would tell me about the whistles and decoder rings their childhood boxes of Cracker Jack had contained. Meanwhile, I watched plastic toys become cardboard-and-plastic toys become pure cardboard crapola.
Those are inflation examples, but similar dynamics are at work under a legislated cost ceiling of 25¢ for candy.
If price ceilings drive quality down, do price floors drive quality up?
In a sense, yes.
Suppose you used to be able to employ 3 unskilled, fresh-off-the-boat immigrants to perform a job at $1/hour each. And suppose a skilled craftsman for that job can do the same work as 3 unskilled men, but he charges $5/hour. Some people will employ the more expensive, higher quality craftsman, and others will employ the 3 less expensive, lower quality unskilled workers. Historically, the craftsmen don't like the unskilled competition, so they launch a minimum wage campaign: how dare anyone pay less than $4/hour?!
With the new price floor on labor, the 3 marginal workers are all unemployed while the demand rises for the "higher quality" labor product of the craftsmen.
It's not exactly the same thing with sexy stewardesses, but very close. According to Tom DiLorenzo's Mises U 2005 lecture on monopoly and competition, when the airlines were all cartelized, it was illegal for them to compete with each other on price.
The result was that (1) only a certain jet set could afford to fly with any regularity, and (2) the airlines competed for these wealthier passengers not by cutting costs and lowering prices, but with comfy seats, free booze, and stews who looked like fashion models.
Once the industry was deregulated, however, the inefficient giants went out of business and the survivors found that they had to compete by cutting costs and lowering prices. At cheaper airfares, we unwashed masses started to fly more often, and airline flights became commoditized. Get me from here to there. I'll pack my own lunch and bring my own booze, thank you very much. If I want to stare at unattainable fashion models, I can bring a magazine.
There are plenty of people who will see this as an inherent failure on the part of the market -- Just look at how small the bag of peanuts is! Can you believe they charged me for that tiny bottle of scotch? -- but more people can travel more conveniently for less money.
If you want something fancier, you can pay for a first-class ticket. The fact that so many people don't fly first class tells us those dollars are better spent elsewhere.
I guess that leaves us free marketeers leading a lonely cheer for average-looking flight attendants.
Today,a trip from NY to Tokyo is just a 14 hour bus ride with two movies.
Lets put the answer to this question where it belongs
Political Correctness Thats what happened
First it was the fat gals suing because stewardesses couldnt be fat, Then it was the stewardess that turned 35 or 40 and had to go because they were too old who sued, Then the fags sued because men couldnt get work at airlines .
You want to know why the stewardesses lost their gloss? Put the blame where it belongs Political correctness.
Yes, econonomics played a role in the disappearance of sexy stews. It was the threat of lawsuits directed against the airlines by angry feminists who said age and appearance could play no role in hiring. Can't recall which laws were brought to bear but our Congresscritters played their role, fearful as always of the NOW gang.
Ain't that the truth....I was stayioned in Spain from 69-72, and dated a Pan Am stewardess for two years..Loved the uniform..
Ahhhh, good looking gals. I remember when Southwest Airlines first started and they had em. Hot pants, go-go boots and nice legs. Free drinks and the pilots had a hell of a sense of humor. I remember one pilot back in the 70's when he came on the speaker and said, "OK folks, hang on cuz we're gonna try and get this crate off the ground." The whole plane load of us were about to cry over that one from laughing so hard.
Today though, we might cry for a different reason.
Calling George Kelman..George Kelman. Please pick up the white courtesy phone and a pizza for Rachel and Trudy. (If you didn't read "Coffee, Tea, or Me!", you won't get it.
And at one time, marriage was a fireable offense, as well.
Who cares how they look as long as they can pass out the drinks fast?
Yes, but also:
Hark! The Utilitarian speaks. LOL!
Very well said.
The next step in the "race to the bottom" in airline service is the elimination of flight attendants altogether. I'm predicting that vending machines and self-serve coffee stations are the way of the future in air travel.
Exactly.
Now gimme another rum & coke, Air Waitress!
Passenger: Pardon is this 1st Class
PSA Stewartess: No sir this airline doesn't have any class.
Real quote!!!!
Also:
Anyone violatining the smoking rules will be asked to step out side.
Place the oxagen mask onver your face 1st, then do the same for any children you are with....but only if they are good children
The last time I flew, all of the flight attendants looked like they were ready to collect social security!
I agree.
The market forces analogy using the 50's stewardess may get and hold ones attention while explaining economic theory - though I liked the Baby Ruth story myself - the facts are as you state. "PC" turned the "stews" into hags and fags.
Obviously the author hasn't ridden any Asian airlines lately. They all have major hotties... Singapore Airlines is way up on the list.
Damn hippies!!!!!!!!!! ruined everything good in this country.......
I remember back in the 60s well.....comparing the Delta Stews of then with Heifer Flight Attendants of today is a sad one....
"You want to know why the stewardesses lost their gloss? Put the blame where it belongs Political correctness. "
Could be, but I don't really care. I don't fly to ogle the stews. I fly to get from one airport to another. Now that they don't even bother serving meals on flights, it's even less important.
As long as whoever is working the flight brings me some coffee and doesn't spill it on my pants, I'm a happy guy.
Not British Airways - It's like flying with your mother or a drag queen who favors Laura Ashley.
"The last time I flew, all of the flight attendants looked like they were ready to collect social security!"
Funny thing, huh? You know, some of the one's you're talking about have been flight attendants now for 20-30 years. It's their job.
So, they're getting older. They weren't going to go out with you anyhow, so what's the difference.
OK,
I fly alot....
Who am "I" supposed to ogle ?
that wasn't my experience.
They were all hot on my flights....
When flying was a special occasion (does anyone remember getting dressed up to fly on a plane???) stewardesses were special and classy.
He was too soon for "Broke-fast" service on an airline.
He had a wedding picture on his desk and he was ravishing in his white wedding dress. We always teased him about being a virgin at his wedding!
Reminds me of the Braniff flight I had on one of my returns from Viet Nam. Real eye candy. Much better than the Air America flights.
In the mid-1960s, Braniff Air Lines outfitted their stewardesses in multi-layer uniforms. Several times during the flight, the David Rose song "The Stripper" would play and the stewardesses would stand in the aisles and seductively remove the outer layer of uniform.
By the end of the flight, then were in hotpants, a sweater-type top, and white go-go boots.
It may have been designed to attract business man travelers (there were few business woman travelers in those days), but it sure made an impression on this then-nine or -ten year old.
I'm inclined to think our wives, sisters, and daughters deserve more respect than that.
I see that's what Chris Matthews flies
For those who just looked at the young ladies, take a moment and llok at the passenger in the lower right-hand corner of the picture
I still get dressed up to fly. I started flying in a tie and coat at age 7 in 1981, and I'm not going to stop now 24 years later.
Its sad how many people want to be slobs though.
I heard about a pilot once who took a tub of loose bolts, screws, nuts, etc., and poured them out in the cockpit of the old plane he was flying. As the plane took off rattling, various bits of hardware started tumbling down the aisle, much to the astonishment of the fliers!
On Braniff's DC-7 Flight 2, Dallas-NYC, I heard the two girls in the galley talking shop. One thought she might try for a transatlantic job with TWA. The other said the hours were really tough, and besides, "Some of those old sisters must be thirty years old!
Why? Flying is about comfort - not trying to impress someone sitting next to you.
Unless you are meeting clients directly off the plane, it makes no sense to dress up to sit in a cramped chair for hours.
There are FAA regs that require "flight attendants".
PSA, the best airline that ever existed!!!!
Well said.
Our uniforms were nifty in those days. So you were AF?
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