http://thehill.com/business/42...-to-be-uncomfortable/

>>... Have you ever heard of "calculated misery"? It's the theory behind what we all know deep down: airlines want us to be miserable so we pay more for upgrades.

"Here's the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as "calculated misery." Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it," Wu writes. "And that's where the suffering begins."
Wu explains that under calculated misery, services or features that were once expected (think of leg room) are made worsened (leg room is reduced as rows are moved closer together). Want a little more leg room? You'll likely need to upgrade your airfare to business or first class or even ordinary coach seats with added leg room....<<

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.