jkhuggins

And, of course, four of the fifty states are technically not states, but commonwealths ...

goalie

Territories! Don't forget the Territories!

jkhuggins

But he doesn't know the territories!

Indelaware

That hasn't been my experience whatsoever. I find today's agents much better. They come to the job with a higher education and deliver a better service. Moreover, the training and workplace rules are far superior. Remember the "good old days" when we had underpaid worker reading trashy paperbacks while concurrently watching the x-ray monitor?

It is not surprising that we have improvements to both security and agent attitude since the government as taken over this task. As a general rule government workers deliver far superior service than corporate workers. When there is a profit motive, employers seek to provide the least that they can get away with. In government service, the point is to provide the best possible service. Yes, there are imperfections owing to bureaucracy and complacency but I'd rather take those inefficiencies over the intentional delivery of the minimal which generally exists in the private sector.

What the lack of geographical understanding by some agents means is not a reflection on who their employer is, but on the general failings of the United States in education. There are many reasons for this, lack of proper funding in education, a history of isolationism and the sense that many Americans need only be aware of their corner of the world rather than having a global view. What percentage of American high school students can find Vietnam on the map? Probably far fewer than can tell one where the Walmart is located.

FliesWay2Much

In response to a statement such as yours, I would normally just quote a famous tennis player. However, in your case, I think I will let him speak for himself.

WillCAD

While trying to reign in my absolute incredulity at this, I will restrain myself from making any snarky comments and simply say that in my extensive experience working with and for government employees at the local, state, and federal levels, this is absolute hogwash.

Although I have certainly encountered hard working and conscientious government employees, and lax and inattentive private sector employees, they are far and away the exceptions rather than the rules. In my personal experience, government workers are far more likely to be lazy, apathetic, complacent, arrogant people who take little or no pride in their work and feel no obligation to do anything more than the bare minimum required to not be fired.

In plainer language, you've got it completely reversed. The "intentional delivery of the minimum" is most definitely a governmental problem, at least in the US, while private sector employees are far more likely to take personal pride in their work and go beyond the minimum, often far beyond.

Why? Profit. If you do a poor job, you lose customers. If you lose customers, your company fails and you lose your job. It's just that simple. Meanwhile, government employees have more job security, because if they do a poor job, what will happen? Will we find a cleaner, shiner new government warehouse club down the street with better prices and more pleasant employees than our local MVA or post office? I think not.

As to your aspersions on the American educational system, I cannot deny that we have problems and shortcomings, but what percentage of students in Vietnam can locate the US on a map? In China? In Guatemala? In Cambodia? Nigeria? Ukraine? I'd like to see a comparison.

scnzzz

As in most things, YMMV. I've had my mix of courteous, pleasant TSA personnel and a good dose of the others too.

That said, as to your point about students in other countries, I strongly suspect they will be far more able to locate other places on the globe (not just the enormous patch of North America that is the USA, which to be fair, apparently according to 2008 research by a BU professor, over a third of AMERICANS cannot find on a world map)...than students in the US. Certainly those in most East and South Asian countries will be able to. Source of this opinion: I went through (public) primary education in one of those countries. Considering what we here spend on education relative to those countries, the typical education in the US tends to be far less comprehensive than it ought to be.

Since you ask for comparative evidence, here is some from a fairly reputable source. This article, while somewhat dated, suggests that we in the US lag far behind other *developed* nations quite badly.

"The 2002 project also surveyed 18- to 24-year-olds in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, and Great Britain. The U.S. trailed every other country in that survey, except Mexico, which did only slightly worse."

Guess what we have in common with Mexico? A lack of proximity to a significant number of other, very distinct, nations and cultures - and with it the ability (and frankly no disincentive not) to be deliberately insular.

I'm sure there's other comparative research on this out there that compares education in the world's richest nation to that in other highly developed places such as Guatemala, Ukraine and others. I'd highly doubt it comes to a materially different conclusion.

Furthermore, (and perhaps more relevant to this thread), that a TSA agent ought know what the consituent parts of this country are should be a given. Whether they (or an average US high school student) knows where Benin is happens to be irrelevant. That it happens to be a sovereign nation is the important part for TSA agents. When in doubt the agent's job is to alert a supervisor, not question the authenticity of the ID, unless they are certain that what they are being presented with is a fake.

JVPhoto

Lest we never forget: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

halls120

I was going to nominate the above for best post of the week, then I read this one.

I've spent almost 40 years in public service, and while I continue to regard it as work worth doing, WillCAD hits the nail directly on the head. For example, in the private health care sector, if you knowingly screw up a lab test because you don't want to do the job correctly because it interferes with your web surfing while on the job, you're fired within a week. Make the same mistake in a government hospital laboratory, you get to make the same mistake three times before you're fired. These mistakes aren't innocent or minor - if the mistakes hadn't been caught, patients could have died.

When you look at our current institutions of government, how can anyone have any faith at all in their efficiency or effectiveness? The NSA spies on US citizens, lies about it to Congress, and there are no consequences. The IRS is an out of control rogue agency that targets political opponents of the party in power. The VA is a cluster F of a medical system that is the future of US medical care. GSA holds lavish parties in Las Vegas and while doing so, openly mocks the regulations that prohibits them. DOD buys overpriced crap designed to fight the last war. DHS and in particular TSA tramples the Constitution daily and isn't held accountable. NIH kills test subjects by giving them contaminated blood, and the CDC leaves dangerous viruses unaccounted for. Other than Social Security, the National Park Service, and the National Weather Service, the federal government is a train wreck getting worse, not better.

So please, spare me the "we're better off with TSA" nonsense.