Airport wait times are longest in TSA history, agency says | Hacker News Reader

Airport wait times are longest in TSA history, agency says

usatoday.com

60 pointsgeox54 comments

Why would you come to work if you weren't getting paid at all? I'm not following that. Because you assume you'll get backpay?

That aside, I simultaneously hold several thoughts about this.

The first is: The TSA probably doesn't need to exist at all in its current form; I'm not aware of any evidence they actually do anything to stop actual threats.

The second is: I have sympathy for the folks who work there, who probably are in it mostly to have a stable and non-controversial government job. I'm sure they're going through it, for political reasons that are not their fault.

The third is: There is zero political incentive for either side to cave on this, that I can see, and as somebody who is generally opposed to the behavior of ICE, I think we as the American public will just have to eat it until they are reined in. I'm including myself in that; this has messed with my travel plans and will continue to do so.

But if I were on the other side of the issue, I think I'd hold the exact same opinion: There is no incentive not to continue the shutdown.

> The TSA probably doesn't need to exist at all in its current form; I'm not aware of any evidence they actually do anything to stop actual threats.

Yeah in can be done like in Europe where security company like G4S is paid by the airport and is manning xrays and handling queues. There are few policemen around to show force and handle conflicts if necessary.

Not sure about it. Private security companies on German airports are absolute malicious assholes, public officers would be better there.

private airport security has the same terrible implications as private prisons

cut corners, maximize profit

Airport security used to be handled by private companies. Then 9/11 happened and that's the whole reason TSA even exists.

> The first is: The TSA probably doesn't need to exist at all in its current form; I'm not aware of any evidence they actually do anything to stop actual threats.

In my anecdotal experience. Literally hours before Air Canada plane crash on American airport I was flying from a Canadian airport. The agents after telling me to enter full body scanner with my hands up prevented an inexcusable violation - me bringing on board 0.33l unopened sealed bottle of still water, which funnily I got on board of a plane on previous flight. You got the risk management all wrong, all over, everywhere.

Still, Canadian airport security is probably nicer than TSA.

US government is a farce. How can they have a system that completely halts every now and then just because the ones in charge can’t agree? If this is such a big issue, and it’s repeating: plan ahead.

And yet Sea-Tac on Tuesday morning didn’t look bad, and with TSA Precheck Touchless, it was a few minutes.

Apparently Sea-Tac has a very low TSA absentee rate:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/sea-tac-bucks-national-...

SeaTac handles this with augmentation from the port. They do an excellent job and have not been impacted by any of the recent shut downs.

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