QANTAS to QWERTY

QANTAS   ˈkwɒntəs    abbreviation.

Acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services. Australia's national airline established in 1920.

Lexinote: QANTAS is an operating demonstration of the consequence of privatising national monopoly infrastructure. 

Public monopolies charge customers (the 'public') cost plus overhead for services. 'Overhead' is a surcharge above cost that is reinvested in repair, renewal, maintenance, and research. Upon privatisation, the surcharge is increased by price gouging to whatever point the market can bear, and redirected to shareholders and CEO remuneration to the detriment of repair, replacement, maintenance, wages, and research. QANTAS was nationalised in 1947. Upon reaching peak efficiency and safety performance 50 years later it was sold to private investors, following the neoliberal rule book.  

Originally parodied by the British television character Alf Garnett as "quaint arse" the name now represents "quiet and not taking off anytime soon."

qwerty   ˈkwɜ:ti:   adjective, noun, acronym

In reference to the standard English-language keyboard.

Etym: q, w, e, r, t, y are the first keys (from left) on the top row of letters.

Lexinote: The layout originated circa 1870 on early mechanical typewriters. If the reader does not know what a typewriter is, YrLexi is happy for them. 

NB: The typewriter is a machine that converts key presses into noise while collaterally smudging paper with ink. Like modern computers and artificial intelligence, it dutifully follows the rule: "garbage in, garbage out."

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