Where's The Plane, Boss

The country's interest in maintaining a dominant plane manufacturer has been the justification for a lot of policy decisions, and this is where they led.

The Boeing near-disaster is the culmination of decades of outsourcing and backsliding on quality, which has poisoned the reputation of a once-proud company. “What used to be a duopoly has become two-thirds Airbus, one-third Boeing,” said one industry analyst to The New York Times. “A lot of people, whether investors, financiers or customers, are looking at Airbus and seeing a company run by competent people… The contrast with Boeing is fairly profound.” As a result, we have really one company making nearly all the new planes in the world.

What is good for Boeing's executives and shareholders does not align perfectly with what is good for America.