From the BBC: Facebook ‘rant’ on school holiday costs sparks campaign

“Supporters also began signing an online petition calling for government action and this has now gone far beyond the 100,000 signatures needed for a possible debate in Parliament.”

That lots of people support the notion of getting the government to make something cheaper for them is not massively surprising now is it. It’s like asking monkeys if we should fill the world with banana plantations. However, when it comes to ideas, popular does not necessarily equal good. E.g. government.

Why are holidays significantly more expensive during the summer months? Because demand for the same supply of holidays and flights increases a great deal, which establishes a higher market price than at other times (i.e. people are prepared to pay more than they would be at other times). Why does demand increase? Largely because families can’t go on holiday when they want. Why? Because the government says so. The root cause of the higher prices, then, is government. Not ‘holiday companies’ who, unfortunately for them, are just the easiest target for unthinking people yielding the elephant gun of government action.

If a lack of liberty is the problem, which in this case it is, then more liberty must be the answer. Schools free of the shackles of central planners/unions would arrange their term times to best suits their customers. And they certainly wouldn’t fine parents for going on holiday during term times. (Yes, schools in the UK do this now. A couple who took their children on a week-long holiday during term time recently were ordered to pay £1,000 in costs and fines by magistrates.). In such an environment families can go on holiday when they want. Therefore much fewer people end up chasing the same flights and hotels on the same dates in July/August. Prices then naturally fall for those periods.

Problem solved. All without the need for petitions, politicians, costly government agencies and the unpleasantness of drawing battle lines across peaceful society.