Why the TSA?
Anybody that has been to the airport for the last four or five years knows first hand the joys of modern air travel. But does it really have to be this way? If so, then why? Anybody doing even the most rudimentary amount of research has found that in spite of all their high tech machinery and machinations such as making people take their shoes off and stealing their pocket knives and not allowing them to carry liquids on the plane has only made airline travel a lot more annoying and actually a lot less safe. What with some 36,000 reports of baggage theft by handlers, it’s just a big ol’ rummage sale without that whole pesky “we have to pay for it” thing. They just go through your baggage and take what they want. And with 36,000 reports, you certainly have to wonder what the real figure is, since they can lock you up and throw away the key for making a fuss, one wonders how many people just bite the bullet and don’t say anything. With easy opportunity and lack of accountability, however, it should be no surprise that this kind of thing is rife. These problems were unheard of before the Feds took over airport security screening. The abuses just never end, nor will they. But why does anybody think that the Federal Government is necessary to protect us in our travels? Besides killing, stealing, and scaring people just what ARE they good at? Let’s examine this a moment.
When the airliners flew into the World Trade Center, why were the airlines not blamed? Why were people still willing to fly on those same airlines even though they had allowed their planes to be hijacked and flown into buildings? Easy. They weren’t responsible for the policies that allowed this to happen, so they don’t have to be held accountable. They just shrug and say: “Hey, we followed FAA regulations to the letter. Not our bad.” Which is true. FAA policies were, in the case of hijackers, to let them do as they will. And what they willed was to fly the planes into buildings. Since FAA regulations are an open book, this kind of thing was quite easy to figure out. As soon as somebody WANTED to do it, they could. So there. So why didn’t anybody among the FAA policymakers lose their jobs over this horrendous lapse? Because government is not held accountable for its errors. There are just too many of them. They rationalize that if they just had more money and a bigger organization, they would be better. That always proves to be the case, right? RIIggghhttt! When something like this happens, the solution is to expand the bureaucracy that was so ineffective in the first place to make it bigger and even less effective. Let’s imagine for a second, however, that the TSA was magically dissolved and you went to the airport tomorrow and there were absolutely no baggage screeners whatsoever. What would happen?
Besides standing there with your mouth agape, would you not wonder which airline to take? The airlines themselves would have to assure passengers that it was safe to fly on THEIR planes. In fact, that if safety is an issue, that THEIR planes are safer than their competitors’ planes. They would hire professional security consultants to best determine the most efficient, safest, and most economically feasible way to assure passengers safety. If you stood in line for an hour to get on the plane at American Airlines, then United Airlines would advertise that their security measures were just as safe, but because of streamlined procedures, their lines were much shorter with much less wait. Because their survival depended on providing what the passengers demanded, safe transport for their luggage, little or no waits in line, and respectful and friendly service, they would go out of their way to provide it, just as your restaurants and other service companies do away from the airports. Does anybody SERIOUSLY believe that airlines would not do a better job of providing traveler safety than the government if their entire enterprise depended upon it? Just how long do you think an airline would last if it allowed this type of thing to happen if they were responsible for the lapses that allowed it? How many heads would roll and how hard would they scramble to try to survive such a disastrous circumstance and convince the flying public that they could once again be trusted?
And here’s one more thing to consider: because each airlines would be responsible for their own security and the handling of their passengers and luggage, it would behoove them to develop and improve their methods, and each individual airline would have their own way of handling all these things. Right now, since security protocol is handled by the Federal Government, it’s the same everywhere. All you have to do is breach security at one airline, and you can breach security anywhere in the country at any airline in the country.
Let me ask you this: If, the next time you went to the grocery store, they made you take your shoes and jacket off and made you empty your pockets out before you went inside because you could be a mad bomber. Would you do it? Nah, me neither. And I wouldn’t do it at the airlines either if there were another airline in the terminal that offered to treat me a little more humanely. Would you?
The horrible No-
I say, and Ron Paul says, that we should ditch this whole entire horrible and horrifying mess and let the market handle it. If we don’t like the way they do, we can vote with our wallets.
