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Comment by rootsudo | Hacker News Reader

The IDEA of the TSA is to standardize all port security, not just the x-ray of your stuff and making you wait in line.

I disagree, it's a federal jobs program under the guise of security theater.

it would be totally ok to be a federal jobs program if it actually provided unintrusive security. rather, the problem is that it's corrupt, funneling large amounts of tax dollars to private enterprise for no benefit and a boatload of individual slights. instead, the tsa should turn half of the nearly 50K screeners into canine teams roaming all the ports, letting people walk through with just an electronic bag screen.

Better yet, why not a federal jobs program that does something useful?

I.E the CCC during the depression era.

If only the US were in dire need of massive infrastructure refurbishment projects.

That would be a better jobs program. You’d employ the various purveyors of dog care products, vets and other services, some of which benefit society in a more meaningful way than a rent a cop.

If the government wants to make jobs programs, it makes more sense to have the people getting the jobs do something productive rather than non-productive(if that is what you think the TSA is). For example, a lot of manual, mostly unskilled labor is needed for road maintenance and repair - why wouldn't the government just create/expand a jobs program for that instead?

Because half the government thinks that the government shouldn't be doing things other than security theater?

Because that would take precious jobs away from the private sector and the rich couldn’t get richer /s

Except that every port is allowed to choose if they use the TSA or not. San Francisco for example does not use the TSA.

> Except that every port is allowed to choose if they use the TSA or not. San Francisco for example does not use the TSA.

Then, somehow, they managed to make it even worse.

afaik, the tsa is still in charge of port security at sfo, but the screening is outsourced to a private company.

The TSA selects the contractor and gives them the rules of operations, but the contractor is in charge of execution. So, sort of?

That's the excuse, not the motivation.

Fine. Push TSA into non-public roles and give airport security back to the airports/airlines.

Yup, I'll bet airports and airlines won't cut corners to make sure profits keep flowing.

Given that TSA continues to absorb increasing amounts of boondoggle in return for actually making me LESS safe (giant lines outside the security perimeter are a wonderful target) I'll take the trade, thanks.

And airline personnel have to abide by the law since they can be taken to court. That's a VAST improvement over the unaccountable TSA.

And, oddly, the airlines actually didn't cut corners. What "needs to get caught" is well-defined, and all holy hell breaks over the heads of people if it doesn't get caught.

Now, that means that airlines train their security to recognize the test firearm rather than actual general firearms, but that's a failure to define the problem correctly rather than cutting corners.

You don't need a Federal Agency to do that.

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