Originally Posted by
Antarius
Do you consider Global Entry and TSA Pre to be "formalized corruption"?
If so, not much I can say to change your mind. if not, its largely the same thing. It is a service that you can pay for that comes with certain published benefits.
The premise of precheck is that the US checks these people to make sure they are ok to skip normal security.
It doesn't actually say they can go to the front of the line. They have to wait in line with the other people.
CLEAR doesn't actually add any security verification to that. So why should they go to the front of the line?
CLEAR is not government. As far as I know you cannot pay a private company to get you an expedited passport. You pay the government (which we call normal in the US).
Can an individual hire police to provide security? In Africa they do, pay for VIP service from the airport to the city. Only a few hundred dollars. Police will escort you.
Is that the same in the US? The government is just for hire?