Airlines Should Charge Cell Talkers $100 Per Minute

Air travel is bad enough with other passengers barging to the front of the line at the gate, greedily taking up luggage-rack space, and getting in each other's way at the carousel; do we really want to add loud cell-phone chatter to the mix, as the FCC is considering? With people "self-absorbed, entitled, and inconsiderate" as it is, there's no way they'll keep their voices down during phone conversations. After all, such chats have already forced the creation of "quiet cars" on trains.

Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Spud Hilton says he'll do "anything to keep from having to hear half a conversation spoken at full voice by 70 people on the same flight. Quite literally, I’d rather have snakes on a plane." His solution: Charge an insane amount of money for the calls—say, $100 per minute. "It’s worked before; remember air phones on the back of the seats?" They were so expensive "that anyone who could afford to make a call on one could also afford to have his or her own plane." Alternatively, we could all just "buy stock in Bose." Click for the full piece. (More airline industry stories.)