Miss Manners: Why ask permission to recline my own airplane seat?

Dear Miss Manners: When sitting in an airline seat, you need not ask permission of the person behind you to recline your seat. Once permission to move is granted by the captain, you can recline, if your chair has the ability to do so.

On what planet would you ask someone else (as you have suggested) if you can adjust the seat that you paid to sit in? If engineers and airlines didn’t want the seats to recline, they would remove the option. Get a grip or pass the torch and retire.