Other People's Money ... on Qantas flights

Nobel laureate Milton Friedman once observed that there were 4 ways to spend money:

• You can spend your own money on yourself.

• You can spend your own money on someone else.

• You can spend somebody else’s money on yourself.

• You can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else.

When you spend your own money on yourself, you tend to be very cautious, focusing on getting good value. Spending your own money on someone else, you may be a bit less careful, but still mindful of value.

However, when you use someone else’s money for yourself, your priority often shifts toward comfort rather than value, though you’ll still expect to enjoy some benefit from the spending.

I don’t want to talk about the political dimension of the whole Qantas Chairman’s Lounge and flight upgrades. Already been well cover.

Here’s a different perspective, for the shareholder.

This article was in this weekend’s Australian - MPs eye upgrades ban to end Qantas saga

Please allow me to quote:

A letter to one senior executive last year informed him that Mr Joyce and his team had reviewed his membership listing and were “unable to extend his membership beyond the current expiry”.

…

The businessman, who did not want to be named, said it was a slap in the face after spending a small fortune on Qantas flights.

“The upgrades Qantas has handed out to politicians calls into question its consistency on who gets access to the Chairman’s Lounge and who doesn’t,” he said.

“There are executives and ­directors, myself included, who are being removed from the Chairman’s Lounge despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, in some cases close to $1m a year, with Qantas.

This unnamed senior executive toff, having spent millions of other people’s money, expects perpetual membership of the Chairman’s lounge.

Remember - when you use someone else’s money for yourself, your priority often shifts toward comfort rather than value.

It’s no wonder our political class have such a sense of entitlement and self importance. They are constantly being lobbyied by people who have sense of entitlement and self importance.

Doomed. We are doomed.