Southwest Airlines just can't get enough. Amidst the troubles many airlines have already endured due to the attacks on 9/11, Southwest must have thought adopting a new policy making obese people pay for two seats would help their business. That, or they're just overly concerned about America's obesity epidemic and thought that the policy would be some sort of motivation for people to break out their running shoes before booking their next flight. Either way, the idea is absurd.
             Most companies that I know of accommodate to make sure the customer is happy at all times. Did airline executives decide to skip out on the class on customer service etiquette? A typical seat on an airplane is about 18 inches wide and if you can't fit into one without spilling over the seats (and passengers) on either side, well then you're just going to have to pay for another seat. Seeing as though 61% of America could have a smidgen of a weight problem, wouldn't it be a better idea to just make the seats a wee-bit bigger? Then again, we're talking about the same industry that crams people onto airplanes like sardines, into seats that no one possibly could be comfortable in -- no wiggle room, no leg room. Their philosophy has always been "the more the merrier."
             Southwest claims the new policy is aimed toward the comfort of the consumer, but I don't know how comfortably I'd be sitting if I just spent 400 dollars extra of my vacation money so that I could be discriminated against. Not only would I feel swindled, but without any set requirements as to who's "too large" or "too chubby," the ticket agent's the one who gets to simply look at you and decide whether they think you should be charged double. How, exactly, does someone tactfully tell another person that they're too fat to take up one seat, so they must pay for two even though they won't actually be sitting in the second seat?
             If they're so concerned about what they call "comfort of the consumer...