In this commentary, TJ Walker critiques a reported proposal for the U.S. government, backed by Donald Trump, to spend up to $500 million to acquire a 90% ownership stake in Spirit Airlines. Walker cites a New York Times column by Steve Ratner—who previously oversaw the 2008 auto bailout—to argue that Spirit should be allowed to fail. He contrasts the airline’s chronic business‑model failures and two bankruptcies in a year with the systemic, job‑preserving rationale behind the auto industry rescue, emphasizing that the latter involved strict conditions, restructuring plans, and a clear exit strategy. Walker condemns the Trump proposal as lacking any plan, conditions, or timeline, labeling it a “cosmetic surgery on a corpse” and a violation of capitalist principles that require failure to discipline CEOs. He references historical airline collapses (Pan Am, TWA, Eastern) and Warren Buffett’s criticism of aviation to illustrate the sector’s inherent challenges. Walker also notes a missed opportunity during the Obama administration when Spirit’s attempted merger was blocked, offering a brief, balanced critique of both parties. The monologue concludes with a plug for Walker’s free personal‑development course at ultimize.com.
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Ultimize. The US government is seriously considering spending $500 million to take up to a 90% ownership stake in Spirit Airlines. Yeah, the same airline where the seat cushion costs extra, the armrest is optional, and if you make eye contact with a flight attendant, they charge you a premium interaction fee. This idea is getting shredded in a New York Times column by Steve Ratner, and unlike most people yelling about bailouts, this guy actually ran one. He ran the car bailout during the Obama administration. So when he says, let this airline die, it's not emotional, it's informed. Let's be honest about Spirit. This is not a great company having just a bad year. This is a bad airline having its most on-brand year ever. Their whole business model was, we're cheaper than everyone else. And then every other airline said, cool, we'll match your price, but also provide oxygen and dignity. Game over. Customers got tired of paying $19 for a ticket and $400 for sitting indoors. Spirit tried to pivot, added perks, tried to act like a real airline. That's like a gas station sushi stand suddenly saying, we're now fine dining. Well, no, You're not. And the result? Two bankruptcies in less than a year. That's not turbulence. That's the plane already in the ocean and someone suggesting we upgrade the Wi-Fi. Now, here's where people get intellectually lazy. They say, well, Obama did bailouts too. Yeah, and that's exactly why this argument falls apart, because those two things are not even in the same universe. During the financial crisis, the government stepped in to save the auto industry. Why? Why did they do that? Because if that collapsed, you weren't losing one company, you were losing millions and millions of jobs, entire region suppliers, factories, the economic equivalent of pulling the engine out of the plane mid-flight. So they did it carefully. Experts, analysis, conditions, restructuring. The companies had to fix themselves, and the government got out as quickly as possible. It was like emergency surgery. But this, with Spirit, this is cosmetic surgery on a corpse. Now let's look at what Donald Trump is proposing. There's really no plan, no conditions, no restructuring requirements, no timeline, just, eh, we'll buy it. That's not economic policy. That's a guy who bankrupted casinos, looking at an airline saying, I got a good feeling about this one. And here's the fundamental issue: capitalism requires failure. If every bad business gets rescued, you don't have capitalism. You have a daycare for CEOs. The airline industry is famous for destroying companies. Pan Am gone, TWA gone, Eastern gone. Even Warren Buffett basically said aviation is such a bad business that someone should have stopped it at the Wright brothers. And now we're pretending Spirit Airlines, the Greyhound bus of the sky, is too important to fail. Really? If Spirit disappears, planes don't vanish, routes don't disappear, passengers just migrate to airlines where the tray table doesn't feel like a rental. People keep saying Obama did bailouts too. Yeah, and a fire extinguisher and a garden hose are both water, that doesn't make them the same thing. The auto bailout was about stopping an economic collapse, millions of jobs, entire industries, and it came with strict rules. Companies had to restructure, clean up, prove they could survive. The government got in and got out. This, this is rescuing one airline that already failed twice. No plans, no conditions, no exit. That's not saving the economy. That's Venmoing half a billion dollars to the worst airline in America and hoping it figures things out. And if that's your economic strategy, Spirit isn't the only thing that shouldn't be flying. And the hypocrisy here is incredible. For years, Trump and his allies preached free markets, let businesses fail, no government interference. Now we might buy an airline. That's not capitalism, that's QVC for bankrupt companies. Act now, we'll take 90% ownership and throw in a failing business model for free. Let's just call this what it is. Donald Trump sees a failing airline and thinks the solution is to own it. No turnaround plan, no restructuring, no explanation of how it ever becomes profitable. Just, we'll take control. It's like buying a restaurant because the food is terrible and saying, good news, now I own the bad food. And here's why this matters. The moment companies believe the government will bail them out after repeated failure, the whole system breaks. Why fix your business? Why cut cost? Why make better decisions? Just crash hard enough and maybe Washington buys you. That's not capitalism. That's a rewards program for incompetence. And in this case, we're not even talking about something essential. It's one airline. If it disappears, America will still have planes, airports, and unfortunately, people reclining their seats into your knees. We don't need to save this. We need to stop pretending every failure is a crisis. This is not a systemic emergency. This is not 2009. This is not millions of jobs hanging in the balance. This is one company that couldn't make its model work. And the smartest thing the government can do, the most disciplined pro-market decision, is exactly what Ratner argues. Let it fail. Because if you keep rescuing companies like this, you don't prevent disasters, you create more of them. And from now on, yes, assume that it's a bad thing to do. Okay, one other thing. I want to be fair. The Obama administration— and this is according to Ratner, and you can look it up— also made a blunder. Spirit tried to merge with another airline during the Obama administration, and the Obama administration said, no, we want more competition. So Hey, I'm fair here. I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist. I'm not carrying water for any one political party. So the Obama administration does deserve some blame for not letting Spirit be absorbed when it was obvious they couldn't really do things very well on their own. But that doesn't excuse this latest Trump boneheaded idea. More to come. Hey, I hope you're getting some value out of the program today. If you're interested in being more successful in your own life, then I urge you, it's time to improve your personal development habits, your good habits, and your communication skills. To do that, I have a free course ready for you. All you have to do is go to ultimize.com, that's U-L-T-A-M-I-Z-E dot com, and you can start learning techniques that I've taught to presidents of countries, prime ministers, Nobel Peace Prize winners, and now you. No obligation, no charge. Go to ultimize.com. Ultimize.
