<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by yonatan:
With the additional standards imposed post-9/11 (I agree some of them are silly, but some, like real background checks, do make sense), would most private security firms be able to make a profit?
Yonatan</font>
The same way that the contractors for the MBTA (like the one that just took over the commuter rail operations from Amtrak) make money even though the agency as a whole requires federal and state support to fund operations.
(Your K-school classrooms are built over the former Eliot Yard of the Dorchester-Cambridge Subway a.k.a. the Red Line)