Re: Bad Inspector or Bad Expectations?
Originally posted by LawnGuyLandSparky:
Here's another example of free-enterprise -vs- government. Our airport security screeners used to be paid minimum wage, many were ex-felons or were wanted somewhere for something, and were often found sleeping on the job.
Free enterprise has a habit of not actually providing services... but rather "faking it." I think the term is called "value added."
Its called "you get what you pay for". The private security screeners did a very fine and cost effective job of what they were there to do. They were there first as a deterrent to hijackers motivated by financial concerns, and secondly to make the flying public feel more secure.
The 9/11 hijackers did not violate any security rules with what they brought on board the aircraft. Box cutters were quite legal to bring on an aircraft at the time.
If you may recall fairly recent history, the primary reason for security screeners being made government employees had to do with politics, not security. Government employees are the only place where union membership is growing, and one political party felt they would get a political advantage from the screeners being forced into unions so their dues could be used to support that party.
News reports are few and far between about the actual effectiveness of the government employed screeners, but a fairly large number of them have also turned out to be unsuited for the task at hand (such as illegal aliens, felons, a known jihadist rapper, etc). The TSA is just far more effective at hiding such things than the private companies were.
And what little information has come out about how effective the TSA screeners are is not encouraging. Since the TSA classified all the information there is no way to tell what the real figures are, but the random tests being made at sneaking weapons past the TSA screeners shows about the same success rate as when the private screners were in place in some reports that got out.
Of course, we would not want actual facts to get in the way of a good rant.
