2013 Survey: How Effective is the Transportation Security Administration?
#61
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How about getting back to the basics of WEI-interdiction measures and the costs related to that?
#62
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I have no idea how you can reconcile that.
#63
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#64
Join Date: Jun 2010
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It's not easy---or at all meaningful---to calculate the year to year change in the probability we will be hit by a meteor either. Yet somehow, we've have managed to figure out that we shouldn't spend a gazillion dollars building a force field to protect us (even though saving the Earth is a compelling interest). Maybe spending $Billions to grope grannies is not reasonable either. @:-)
It's called risk management. And, in fact, it's pretty easy to do if you take politics out of the equation. Maybe we should have this done by an independent organization to minimize the political BS?
#65
Join Date: Jun 2010
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Keep the benefit of safety, whatever it may be, constant. Is it OK for the government to tap your phone, read your mail, search your house, search your car, search your friends car/house, strip search you, etc. at any time they feel like it to maintain this level of safety?
#66
Join Date: May 2011
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As would my family members. Since October 2010, the airlines have not earned thousands of dollars of income that my family has not spent with them because of the TSA -- and won't until the TSA no longer sexually assaults people.
#67
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TSA has nothing to do with stopping terrorists. It is designed to convince the Kettles flying to Orlando that flying is safe.
Watch any local TV interviews on the Thanksgiving Wednesday - it works great.
The collateral damage to the rest of us is noise.
Watch any local TV interviews on the Thanksgiving Wednesday - it works great.
The collateral damage to the rest of us is noise.
#68
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Stafford UK
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In general travelling to the US twice a year for the last 5 years I have found most TSA officers to be polite. Where I have an issue is when you have to place everything in the boxes to go through the scanner. Some of those working in that area are not so polite. It maybe the fact some people cause problems through not understanding what they have to do. This is not helped by those with larger carry on baggage than I have as checked in.
Its a gripe of mine that some people have too much carry on.
Its a gripe of mine that some people have too much carry on.
#69
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^^ TSA was never about making air travel safer. It is a massive public relations scheme devised by Congress and the Bush WH created to provide the illusion of security, and that your government is doing everything it can to prevent terrorism. The creators know it is a joke, and they know it doesn't provide any material increase in security, but it DOES provide federal jobs, and, more importantly, it gives our "leaders" plausible deniability if there is another aviation-related terrorist attack, so it's never going away.
#70
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^^ TSA was never about making air travel safer. It is a massive public relations scheme devised by Congress and the Bush WH created to provide the illusion of security, and that your government is doing everything it can to prevent terrorism. The creators know it is a joke, and they know it doesn't provide any material increase in security, but it DOES provide federal jobs, and, more importantly, it gives our "leaders" plausible deniability if there is another aviation-related terrorist attack, so it's never going away.
#71
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Every reported success or accomplishment by the TSA should be followed by one simple question: But at what cost?
The value of an accomplishment can only be fairly judged by weighing it against the cost in time, aggravation, loss of liberty and resources.
One example (made up numbers).
Big difference.
The value of an accomplishment can only be fairly judged by weighing it against the cost in time, aggravation, loss of liberty and resources.
One example (made up numbers).
This week the TSA discovered 28 handguns at airport checkpoints around the country. But at what cost? [Insert evaluation of costs here.]
#72
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"What is the value of a life?" they would ask. I had a very simple answer -- how much life insurance do you have on yourself? That is what you think a life is worth.
They didn't agree with my reasoning, but I stand by what I said then. Infinite cost for zero risk is slightly unreasonable.
#73
Moderator: Manufactured Spending
Join Date: Jul 2011
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If you have $500,000 in life insurance and I offered you $600,000 for your life, would you accept it? If life insurance determines the value of life and you were a rational actor, you would gladly give up your life for any amount of money that is greater than your policy.
#74
Join Date: May 2011
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Ok now that I've recovered from my red-eye flight, allow me to explain the punchline.
You have turned my scenario around and are arguing against a point I didn't make. I did not say, "what is a life worth when I will receive something from you or someone else?" I said, "what is a life worth when you have to pay something for it?"
Offering me something for a life, when I don't have to pay anything concrete for it, is meaningless because the price can always go higher when it's someone else's money. Shoot, look at Detroit, the US government, and various California cities for examples of how "easy" it is to be given something from someone else; there's no "worth" there.
But when I have to spend my money or my capital on something, well, then we see what that thing's worth is to me, because the price has a limit.
When government has "unlimited" money (taken from faceless taxpayers), it's always easy to argue "what's a life worth?" and spend untold amounts of money in extremely inefficient, ineffective, and illegal (my opinon) ways. Ask the AFS people to pay hundreds of dollars (and have it continue to increase) as a fee at the checkpont each time they fly, and suddenly the worth of what is being done will look different to them and to others.
Last edited by KDS; Aug 19, 2013 at 1:06 pm Reason: Added details.
#75
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There's actually robust analysis done on the topic of "what is a life worth." Good summary of recent data points here. Bottom line, seems to be between $5-9MM, for Americans. FAA uses about $6MM.