I'm thoroughly familiar with the TSA and the hiring process for it, and no, it doesn't reward smarts or virtue. It rewards having a pulse and being able to put up with the bureaucracy of going through a hiring process that often takes 3, 6, 8 months to complete. Most people can't wait that long, and can't be unemployed that long. This is ONE reason TSA gets many of the characters it does. Rewards people in no hurry or who don't need/want a job. And the hiring process is so long convoluted and expensive, they do everything they can to not fire bad people who should be fired because it costs so much to train news ones. I could go on and on and on. Just another govt. bureaucracy....