If you think the boomer die-off isn't a big deal, just wait until you see how badly the supply chain will fall apart in absence of a stable transportation system.

Air travel and cargo alone is riding on the backs of industry-veteran boomers who are retiring in droves.

ATC personnel, pilots, mechanics, dispatchers... All facing major staffing shortages that they won't be able to fill with conventional hiring standards.

So those standards will be lowered. It's already happening, and we can see it in the increased delays and near-miss incidents.

Even passenger jets move lots of mail and cargo. Air traffic is one of the most important moving parts of the national and international supply chain. Just that alone will have severe consequences for all other sectors.

And this is before even getting to trains and trucks.

Just this one sector of the economy can dynamite everything else if it becomes dysfunctional enough. Does your industry need supplies? Do they arrive via plane, train, or truck? 💀

Tell me you know nothing about transportation regulations without telling me.

The ability to fully automate large jets has existed for decades. Why do you think it hasn't been implemented yet?

It's a little late for this, but boomers should have encouraged their kids to learn skills that apply to these fields instead of telling them to get useless degrees in marketing, business, education, and art history.

Maybe big propaganda push on zoomers?

Also, many transit jobs (especially the technical ones like maintenance) pay great salaries.

The true problem is that boomers psyopped the younger generations into thinking that college was the only path to success.

Yes, some of the worst air disasters were caused by maint failures, like JAL123. Bulkhead in tail sec poorly riveted, catastrophic failure in flight, severed all hydraulic systems. Plane literally rudderless, limps along until inevitable crash. All killed.

Both pilot error and maintenance failures have been well-mitigated over the years by improved safety regulations, but that won't matter if there are too many unqualified and inept people (diversity hires) doing the work.

All the safety regulations and checklists and procedures in the world still require competent people to correctly understand and follow them.

For the past decade or so, ever since the Colgan Air crash, US civil airspace has been very, very safe, with no other mass casualty incidents involving large jets.

Until 2021 or so, I felt very confident that things would stay that way. Now I am not so confident.

This is a very recent and perfect example. It doesn't matter how carefully-defined and detailed the safety rules are if you hire people who don't respect them or are incapable of following them.

I know for a fact the FAA is allowing diversity hires in ATC, which is a whole other yarnball of problems.

ATC can get people killed all on their own by giving people bad instructions.

You are probably right that it's harder for an incompetent person to end up in safety-sensitive maintenance, but even just a shortage of techs will cause major problems on its own.