Getting squeezed

Now this is a story that will send shivers down the spine of anyone who's ever been on an airplane:

Barbara Hewson, from Swansea, south Wales, suffered injuries including a blood clot in her chest, torn leg muscles and acute sciatica and remains in pain two years on.

The obese passenger had only been able to fit into her seat by raising the arm rest, which meant her body parts weighed down on Mrs Hewson.

Airlines in general do seem to encourage fat people to buy two tickets if they can't fit into a single seat, but why not require them to do so? It seems rather straightforward to me that if you can't fit into a single seat on an aircraft, you should pay for the extra space that you are taking up. By enforcing this rule airlines would be doing their non-hypertrophic passengers a great favor, because it's not much fun sitting next someone's who that fat. Southwest Airlines in the US is already doing this, but inevitably is being sued for it by fat people who think it's OK to inconvenience (and even injure) their fellow passengers with their gargantuan bodies. Aspiring to victimhood, the highest of perquisites one can attain in postmodern society, they cry discrimination. You bet it's discrimination. It's discrimination on the basis that they're taking up more space than the one seat they've paid for. Simply because they stuff themselves at every meal does not entitle them special treatment. Pay for the appropriate amount of space on the plane, and the discrimination vanishes. If you want to be fat, fine. But also accept the consequences.