Originally Posted by TierFlyer
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.
It does seem far fetched. More likely people wouldn't take the trip at all. Or they'd find a different routing if they were in-transit passengers.
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?
The point I was making is that it's a rare occurance and thus (1) will not upset as many people and (2) can be avoided without much cost.
I try to avoid companies that, as a matter of policy, require ID to use credit cards. This is an annoying hassle and is a violation of their merchant agreement.
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.
Agreed, they can do this. Unfortunately, people avoiding the US is bad for the US. Foreigners bring skills, money, experience with them, which is good for the US, and they take things from the US (e.g. education, cultural understanding) that help the US in the long-run.
Or Iger complaining about theme park numbers?
As I said, the exchange rates are likely enough to overcome any negative effect from the criminal treatment. If the exchange rates were to come out of the toilet, things might change.
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.
It's not popular with the electoral public to be against anything that supposedly comes under the heading of "security."
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.
Some may care, some may not. There are plenty of FlyerTalkers who refuse to come to the US or have cut back on trips.