In its editorial yesterday, USA TODAY hammered the airline industry for what it said would be known “in another context…as a protection racket.” According to the editorial, airlines are putting “customers in a state of high anxiety” and “nickel-and-diming” them to give a way out. USA TODAY particularly focuses on the bag-check fee of $25 common on most airlines.

The editorial is worth reading in full for two reasons: first, the complaints completely ignore the basic economic concept called “supply and demand.” Second, it jumps straight into the arms of Big Government when it says, in its second to last paragraph, that airlines “invite…government intervention, such as a Senate bill that would mandate one free checked bag.”