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Greed is not some human drive that somehow just showed up, or increased over time.  It's inherent.  AS consumers, we look for the best value possible for us.

Is that greed?  In a sense, it is, if we know that our choice is bad for the community as a whole.

Most US cities, maybe all of the major ones, don't rely on manufacturing today. Atlanta relies on conventions and the hospitality industry and a lot of white collar jobs and construction.

I don't think there is ANY manufacturing in the city limits worth noting.  That probably is not unusual these days.

You're completely misunderstanding my post. My post had nothing to do with losing more manufacturing jobs. Those manufacturing jobs are already gone. Trump had a valid point when he was running for President and would say things like "Detroit crumbled while sky-scrappers rose in Shanghai" - it's the primary reason why he got elected in my humble opinion. He won the important swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania- that usually go blue- in large part because that message resonated with those millions of people in those states who had seen 30+ years of failed neo-liberal policies leave their once thriving communities in virtual ruins.

My point was this: IF China was able to re-route global trade with it's belt & road initiative, manufacture 70% of high-value/high-tech with Made in China 2025- which they come nowhere close to that at present- foreign companies Intel, AMD, Apple, US pharma, Dell, Sony, Vizio- etc., etc. dominate that type manufacturing in China- not Chinese state backed enterprises. And IF China broke the stranglehold of the US dollar as the worlds reserve currency and as the currency of the oil trade, we are done. Wrap it up. It's all she wrote.

Greed is not some human drive that somehow just showed up, or increased over time.  It's inherent.  AS consumers, we look for the best value possible for us.

Is that greed?  In a sense, it is, if we know that our choice is bad for the community as a whole.

Well, taking China out of it for a second, I think you can look at the airlines. 

Once pricing was all transparent and easily comparable on the internet, "ticket price" became all that anyone cared about. With the exception of frequent business travelers who had loyalty based on certain levels of status due to frequent flyer miles, everyone else picked the cheapest seat they could find.

What happened? Predictably, service went out the window. Airlines started doing everything they could to get the "internet number" as low as possible, nickle-and-diming travelers for EVERY little additional thing that they could... Want to check a bag? Pay up, sucka. Want to select your seat? Pay up, sucka. Want to carry-on a bag (for some)? Pay up, sucka. For a while it was only the budget airlines that were charging for things like selecting a seat, but now even the "flagship" airlines in this country are doing it. 

As consumers, people complain about this but at the same time they'd sit on the wing of the aircraft if it would save $5/ticket, so again it's an economic "revealed preference" thing. 

So yeah, back in the old days you had to call or go to a store to find out how much something cost, and it was damn near impossible to comparison shop unless you had a LOT of time on your hands to go looking around multiple places. Now a quick perusal of the internet will let you know what that item costs anywhere and everywhere you're looking for it, and barring other factors usually the decision is made on item price and/or shipping costs. 

Well, taking China out of it for a second, I think you can look at the airlines.

Once pricing was all transparent and easily comparable on the internet, "ticket price" became all that anyone cared about. With the exception of frequent business travelers who had loyalty based on certain levels of status due to frequent flyer miles, everyone else picked the cheapest seat they could find.

What happened? Predictably, service went out the window. Airlines started doing everything they could to get the "internet number" as low as possible, nickle-and-diming travelers for EVERY little additional thing that they could... Want to check a bag? Pay up, sucka. Want to select your seat? Pay up, sucka. Want to carry-on a bag (for some)? Pay up, sucka. For a while it was only the budget airlines that were charging for things like selecting a seat, but now even the "flagship" airlines in this country are doing it.

As consumers, people complain about this but at the same time they'd sit on the wing of the aircraft if it would save $5/ticket, so again it's an economic "revealed preference" thing.

So yeah, back in the old days you had to call or go to a store to find out how much something cost, and it was damn near impossible to comparison shop unless you had a LOT of time on your hands to go looking around multiple places. Now a quick perusal of the internet will let you know what that item costs anywhere and everywhere you're looking for it, and barring other factors usually the decision is made on item price and/or shipping costs.

The ticket prices fell because of deregulation in 1978. The prices went into free fall way before the internet. Adjusted for inflation a round-trip flight from NY to LA would cost on average about $1,500 back in 1977. Today that number is somewhere around $500. And you can find flights way cheaper than that- you can find them for $250 or less routinely.

The service went out of the window because: monopolization/consolidation. Literally 90% of all air travel in the US is now controlled by 4 entities. Want to complain about? Want to go somewhere else? Tough shit. You have 4 options and 3 of them are basically the same level of service/customer support. The big airlines like Delta, United, and American have made record profits. Why? It's not because they had to compete with budget airlines to nickel and dime people. It's because in effect, they have protected monopolies. They can price how they want and do whatever the hell they want. 4 companies have 90% of the market. Budget airlines like Spirit and Frontier are ants on the heel of a boot compared to Delta or United or American.

Once pricing was all transparent and easily comparable on the internet, "ticket price" became all that anyone cared about. With the exception of frequent business travelers who had loyalty because they were spending someone else's money and got perks, everyone else picked the cheapest seat they could find.

FIFY

So... If not for deregulation followed by competition, why are the big 3 not raising their ticket prices even more? If they can charge whatever they want, how did prices get battered down to routinely being able to fly NY/LA for $250?

And service went out the window because consumers are no longer willing to pay for a premium product. They realize it's not "glamorous" to travel, so they'll take the cheapest bus in the sky they can get on.

I'm arguing that consumers are making decisions based on price, and that's due to competition. You're arguing that due to consolidation/monopolization that the big 3 can charge "whatever they want", i.e. there is no meaningful competition, yet prices keep dropping. If there's no competition, how do you explain prices falling?

Where I might agree with you, however, is not the travel between major cities. I think the competition there is keeping prices down. It's when you try to fly somewhere outside the major routes that the costs jump, specifically because there are so few flight options, so few carriers, and so little competition for those routes. If I want to fly round-trip from LA to NY, I have a bunch of options. If I want to fly round-trip from LA to Medford, OR, I have very few.

Fuel prices had been at all-time lows in the history of the industry and the big boy airlines were able to upgrade their fleets to newer more fuel efficient aircraft by taking on massive amounts cheap debt. Cheap debt at 1-2% interest- which let's be frank- is absolutely nothing- new more fuel efficient planes + all-time lows in fueling costs = CHACHING. They've had a license to print money.

Prices would be even cheaper if there was more competition. There's barely any competition. Budget airlines offer tickets as low as $40 round-trip from NY to Miami. You can't even fill up a tank of gas for your car $40. Well you couldn't before the pandemic that is.

FIFY

That ended 20 years ago, maybe longer.

No, it's still possible. 

As a frequent flyer, I can't be extravagant. My company works through a third-party travel booking service and there are definitely limits on what you can and can't do. In order to go over the limits it catches the eye of people several levels above in ways you generally want to avoid lol... 

That said, there are still ways to work around it.

The first is to align your own frequent flyer programs to the company's "preferred" airlines. In my case that's American and Southwest. That was convenient because I was already primarily flying American. But when I go to Denver, and the only real options are Southwest, United, and Frontier, I try to ALWAYS make my routing on Southwest rather than diluting my points from those trips between 3 airlines. 

The second is flexible routing. I prefer to fly out of Orange County. When I fly routes that Southwest doesn't favor, I prefer to fly American. If I can't find a routing on my preferred airline that's within the guidelines/limits of the company, I'll drive up to LAX or down to San Diego for a flight. Sometimes that works out in my favor because I can't get a direct out of Orange County but can from LAX/SAN to certain cities, so the extra drive time is somewhat alleviated by the shorter flight/layover time. That's what I did for my trip to Austin a couple months ago. And it had the benefit that if I'd flown from Orange County, due to layovers and flight times I probably would have been forced to extend to a 2-night trip instead of an overnight. 

International is harder, but I haven't had to fly international for business since 2015, so I haven't had to worry about it.

It takes a little work and a little flexibility, but you can still align your flights for maximum personal benefit re: points/miles.