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Comment by foepys | Hacker News Reader

I'm a bit shocked about the responses to this comment. There is literally nothing you can do to become shorter and even though HN is very American I didn't expect this line to solidarity to be drawn this early. From my European (and maybe more solidarity-orientated) standpoint I can understand a surcharge for very obese passengers but not one for one just being born different than others.

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I think the americans here are more on the ayn rand end of the spectrum, so the entire country isn't as vindictive as this. There truly exists a humanist tradition in the US, though obviously not in this thread.

It sucks but it's absolutely reasonable. It's shocking to me that you think firms shouldn't be allowed to charge more to cover greater costs.

I think the idea is not that they shouldn't charge to cover their costs but that they should raise all prices and spread the cost out over all passengers. You shouldn't be punished for being born a certain way. If you choose to be a way that costs extra then it is reasonable to charge you extra but not if there's nothing you can do about it.

I think either way punishes people for the way they're born. Making everyone pay the average cost means shorter people are paying more for fuel than they're costing. Heavier people are paying less than they're costing. So the shorter people are subsidising the larger people.

Tall people will spend more on food/pay for leg room upgrades. etc. My point being you could argue about this for ever. At the end of the day the decision is would you pay an extra couple of $ per flight so that everyone can afford to fly or would you rather save a few $ but a number of tall people can't afford the ticket now? And even for the ones who can do you feel like the result is just/fair? There's no right or wrong (unfortunately).

As a tall person you have a higher earning potential. Surely that offsets the slightly more expensive airline tickets?

A surcharge for obese people because they are obese would be punishing people for their life style. A surcharge based on weight no matter what or why is not nearly as intrusive, and is only making you pay for the resources you use.

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