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Well stated. As long as there is money to be made and jobs to be had, our elected officials will continue to look the other way when it comes to incidents like

Well stated. As long as there is money to be made and jobs to be had, our elected officials will continue to look the other way when it comes to incidents like this. Security theatre was job one behind the creation of the TSA; job two was a huge employment drive for the people under the auspice of a benevolent organization. Since these two drivers are so deeply embedded in the duties that government understands as its primary mandates, there is no way they can see any faults in the system. Also, consider what would happen if we eliminated the TSA TSA has 62,000 employees and an annual budget in 2013 of $7.9 billion [http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/homeland-security/tsa http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/homeland-security/tsa] Laying off 62,000 people from the government payroll and eliminating $8 billion in funding would constitute a significant hit on the economy, and practically guarantees you won't be re-elected.

basseq 10y ago
The economic impacts plus the cover-your-ass excuse in the event of a terrorist attack makes eliminating the TSA political suicide. Which drives me crazy because it's the right move. The TSA does not protect the U.S. and the government is not a jobs program. You could give everyone at the TSA a $50k severance package and still recoup $4B. But the moment something happens, all the fingers are pointed your way. Wrongfully, of course, but human beings are bad at weighing risk and hindsight is 20/20.
- Smushman 10y ago
  An excellent point I failed to include.
jkestner 10y ago
We can use that same $8 billion to create jobs building things that would benefit citizens, like transportation infrastructure, municipal internet, low-income housing, etc. Instead of jobs for airport greeters. We need to be thinking of the sources of unemployment, such as the shift in our energy demand, and instead of impotently promising to bring coal jobs back, redirect that manpower to something that will matter going forward.

basseq 10y ago

The economic impacts plus the cover-your-ass excuse in the event of a terrorist attack makes eliminating the TSA political suicide. Which drives me crazy because it's the right move. The TSA does not protect the U.S. and the government is not a jobs program. You could give everyone at the TSA a $50k severance package and still recoup $4B. But the moment something happens, all the fingers are pointed your way. Wrongfully, of course, but human beings are bad at weighing risk and hindsight is 20/20.

Smushman 10y ago
An excellent point I failed to include.

jkestner 10y ago

We can use that same $8 billion to create jobs building things that would benefit citizens, like transportation infrastructure, municipal internet, low-income housing, etc. Instead of jobs for airport greeters. We need to be thinking of the sources of unemployment, such as the shift in our energy demand, and instead of impotently promising to bring coal jobs back, redirect that manpower to something that will matter going forward.