A couple nights ago I got off a plane from a two week trip to Europe. My wife and I had spent hours and hours walking around Paris and Amsterdam among people from all ages and walks of life. Young and old- people walked around and were moving their bodies.
Waiting for our luggage at the belt, there was a middle aged woman who came up to us and started to complain that the airport didn’t have golf cart service to bring her through the enormous terminal (maybe half a mile). She was pissed! How dare they make me walk that much!
This was the same woman we saw chain smoking in one of those “designated areas” in the previous airport. She was overweight, cranky, and, at this point, trying to enroll me in her fury. I smiled and consoled her but walked away thinking about the stark difference I’d seen in her European counterparts.
Why is it that we EXPECT people, the State, our companies, or the airports to take care of us when we have chosen to not take care of ourselves? Nobody forced those cigarettes on her. Nobody force-fed her the bad food. Yet, it is now the airport’s fault that she is tired because she is forced to do the one thing that we evolved to do best on this planet- move around. This is de-evolution in my opinion.
The socio-economic implications are also important. Her demanding a cart means the airport has to pay for it- the cart, the power, the staff, the insurance…all of it. Well, guess where the airport gets that money? US. Yeah- like any business, they either raise the airport fees or draw more tax dollars…however the heck they do it, WE are the ones having to pay that bill.
