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Comment by michaelochurch | Hacker News Reader

People don't defer travel because it's "too expensive". It's not. They do it because they can't when they're young. Most people are not established enough to set their own rules, and like it or not, the career game is age-graded and being in a 25-year-old's position at 30 makes it that much harder to be taken seriously in the future.

The OP is already established enough to be able to travel and work. One of the things that comes out of a private equity stint is a fat Rolodex. That's a top-1% situation.

Most people aren't in a position to travel until age 30-35, when they have kids. This makes it hard to travel, except in the summer. And because of extreme government irresponsibility (not cracking down on airlines and hotels that jack up their rates when school's out) it's far more expensive than it should be.

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Here's a fast track for you to "get established" and come out at "top-1%" with a "fat rolodex": launch those "fair airlines and hotels" that are not more expensive than you presume to know "they should be". No government needed.

Hotels are generally fairly priced during the off-season.

Airlines: often they have long-term leases on airports (i.e. government favoritism) that give them a gatekeeper privilege. Hence the ridiculous fares .

If you really think that an average person can bring together the means to "launch" an airline, then my advice to you is to stop spending so much time on Hacker News now that the school year has begun. The first rule of freshman-year survival: cut distractions.

True, an "average person" cannot launch an airline, but then, an average person cannot launch much of anything. Is this the extent of your aspirations? Richard Branson could pull it off. As for the freshman thing, thanks for the laughs, trollman. Now please continue with your frustrations about how hotels and airlines destroy your quality of life (rather than, say, contribute to its improvement at any price that works for both parties; otherwise, no one's loss). And if you're deluded that by handcuffing them, "the government" (any govt. really) would be acting only in your own best interest, wait until they stoke you, too.

Okay, okay, s/average person/person of average means .

Yes, I am a fan of government action against private malfeasance. The private health insurance industry, in the form that exists in the U.S., shouldn't exist.

So the solution to government-favoritism is government-cracking-down. Awesome, let's put the flying into govts hands right away, that's easier. Oh wait, we already tried that decades ago.

You could also travel for a year or less at some point when you are young. Also, working abroad is a great potential way to get some travel experience while not falling behind.

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