Highfliers.

• Position: Airlines expand business class accommodations while squeezing out the economy class - Column

If you want a vivid illustration of the growing divide between the rich and the rest of us in America, get on an airplane. The airlines are perfectly frank about their attitudes toward social class. To pamper their high-paying passengers, they are squeezing "economy" class--cutting down on space and reducing service.

U.S. Airways has shrunk the amount of room in coach to make space for its new, luxurious business class.

TWA has expanded its first-class cabin by 60 percent by taking away 15 percent of economy passengers' leg room.

Northwest has cut down on the number of carry-on bags low-airfare passengers can take on board, pegging the number of carry-ons to the price of your ticket.

And American has announced that its frequent-flier program will reward first-class passengers at three times the rate of coach.

The reason for all these policies is simple: first-class and business-class tickets make up a huge chunk of airline profits. At TWA, business-class travelers, who fly often and pay top-dollar fares, account for 25 percent of passengers but bring in half of the airline's revenue, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The airlines figure if they lavish services on their high-paying customers, it doesn't matter how irate the rest of us get over canceled flights, lousy service, space reductions, and other forms of abuse. After all, where else are we going to go?

The airline policy gives the lie to quasi-religious reverence for unregulated, unfettered capitalism. It shows that, in an unregulated world, those with the most money win while the great majority get crunched.

The writing was on the wall for lower-class passengers when, after deregulation in the 1980s, the airlines beefed up service to high-traffic routes and began canceling flights to less-travelled areas, stranding passengers who had the misfortune to book tickets on half-full planes.

Things are about to get worse. Six big airlines are plotting to consolidate the industry, with U.S. Airways joining up with American, Northwest with...