Pay me not to use Knee Defender – don’t throw me off a flight

If you havn’t noticed the great debate about the Knee Defender – which stops the person in front of you on a flight reclining their seat, and got two passengers thrown off a flight in the USA recently, then read this article in the NYTimes.  People get awful upset about this stuff – but here is a kind of economically rationalist view:

“The economists Anne Case and Christina Paxson advanced the theory that tall people earn more because they have higher I.Q.s. Taller men on the dating website OkCupid receive more messages from women and have more sex partners than their short counterparts.

Instead of counting their blessings, or buying extra-legroom seats with some of their extra income, the tall have the gall to demand that the rules of flying be reconfigured to their advantage, just as everything else in life already has been. Sometimes — one Upshot editor who shall remain nameless included — they even use the Knee Defender to steal from their fellow passengers.

Now that’s just wrong.”

Read the full Josh Barro article here: Don’t Want Me to Recline My Airline Seat? You Can Pay Me