More On Airbus's A380 Problems

In our ongoing series chronicling the greatest business rivalry, I direct your attention to this Bloomberg article about the ongoing production delays of Airbus's double-decker A380. It turns out that Airbus's computers don't talk to each other. This is stupid, naturally. But the people at Airbus aren't stupid; they, after all, build planes. Modern aviation is arguably one of the greatest achievements of humanity, and it did not happen to be thus based on the ongoing contribution of stupid people. So what is the deal? How can Airbus, which is attempting to build the largest commercial airliner in history, come to have a mishmash of computer systems? The answer is illuminated in Mary O'Grady's column today talking about the corruption in the Brazilian government. The column is worth reading in its entirety but her point is summed up in the von Mises quote that she leads with.

"Corruption is a regular effect of interventionism."

Indeed corruption is endemic to interventionist systems. Airbus is beset with interventionist thinking. Airbus's basic plane-making purpose is assaulted with the political classes' need to make it a vehicle of political goals and consequently it has become both a massive source of patronage and the locus of political turf wars. Like any other form of intervention, this has caused corruption, a corruption of the mind that also goes by the name stupidity. That is why the smart people at Airbus have a stupid situation on their hands. The incomprehensible computer situation at Airbus is a form of corruption, albeit a subtle one that is perhaps less loathsome than other forms of corruption in that it is not an immoral corruption, and as such it is counter-productive to society.