I don't know how many rampers post on here, but I've been thinking lately. It occurred to me how absolutely absurd the entire "baggage aspect" of airline travel is. It seems to me that more time, energy, manpower, and resources are spent simply moving the 50 pounds of crap people have to bring with them when they fly, than the actual passengers themselves. I mean, you look out the window at an airport, and all you see are carts of bags, and people moving bags, and bags bags bags. The entire operation is basically just dealing with bags! At every airline, by far the largest workforce are the ramp agents. It seems like SOO much effort is required to just deal with the STUFF people bring with them, more so than anything else.

And going beyond that. What is it about human nature that requires us to bring so many items along with us when we travel? If you really think about it, it's sort of strange. We can't go anywhere without bringing along a bunch of "stuff". Why is that exactly? I understand that we NEED some fundamental things, but overall I think people have a strange need to have to travel with a bunch of their crap.

Imagine a world where people didn't do this. You'd have airlines operating very efficiently and cheaply, because the costs associated with the baggage is a major burden on airlines.

I wonder how many people would fly a "no checked baggage allowed" airline?