Originally Posted by Doppy
These are all examples of getting one fingerprint taken. Getting them all is different.
Really? How? Time? So you fly across the Atlantic (or Pacific), wait in line for thirty minutes to get through (existing) customs, but once they take another 20 second to get the rest of your right hand on the scanner, you turn around and go home? Seems far-fetched.
Originally Posted by Doppy
Furthermore, the percentage of people getting fingerprinted (for office access or standard banking) is pretty low.
So now the standard is that if it impacts too many people it is bad? So showing ID to buy ciggies or booze is bad? How about when you use your Visa at Harris Teeter?
Originally Posted by Doppy
Many people already complain about this kind of thing and avoid doing business with companies that operate in this manner. Dollar or one of the other car rental agencies started taking fingerprints as a condition of rental, but, IIRC, canceled the program after receiving complaints.
Good for them. The tourists who don't like it can go to Canada. The bank customers who don't like fees can use a Federal Credit Union. The people who don't want to take the drivers test can ride a bike. Works for me.
Originally Posted by Doppy
I don't have anything other than anecdotal evidence that travel is being negatively impacted by the "US Visit" program, but then, I haven't seen any hard evidence to the contrary.
Ceteris paribus then, plus a slice of Occams Razor. In any case, don't you think you'd hear prune-face Pelosi trumpeting it? Or Iger complaining about theme park numbers?
Originally Posted by Doppy
Intuitively one wouldn't expect the program to have a positive effect (certainly nobody decides to travel to the US for the purpose of being photographed and fingerprinted), so the (intuitive) best case would be a zero effect.
Well, intuition around the earth being flat is often wrong. The technical term for arguing the inverse of the positive escapes me, but I think that the lack of anti-Bush flack from the normal Dem whiners leads me to believe that there is absolutely no damage whatsoever.
Do you really thing that the Smythes from Amersham really give a crap about being fingerprinted by customs before they can to go Bush Gardens? About as much as I care that Brazilian Customs has a zerox of my Passport and my bank details.
Why not?
And capitalism doesn't work very well when governments discourage free trade by continuously thinking up new ways to discourage trade and travel.[/QUOTE]