This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
3/13/2005
Air Travel: Quicker & Safer?
In an article entitled "Software and Smart Cards", by Samantha Levine in the March 14, 2005 U.S. News and World Report, Samantha states that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is in the process of spending hundreds of millons of dollars in research and new technology aimed at taking some of the hassle out of the flying experience. Since June the TSA has been running a test program where registered, prescreened air passengers are on a "fast-track" program allowing them to bypass cumbersome checkpoints and skip most secondary screenings. The U.S. has now teamed with Amsterdam's "fast-track" flying security program to make flying international easier. The government is now giving the nod to the private-sector, i.e. individual airports and airlines, to develop their own "easy-pass" programs. Economists say that the private sector can do it in a more efficient way, both service and cost. Do you see any loopholes in this new system? Are prescreened passengers always going to faithful domestics or can a mole/terrorist work his way in? Is it smart for the government to let the private sector develop it's own "easy-pass" systems?
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2 comments:
-1 for no link in Chuck's post, and for spelling errors in Jim's and Bart's comments.
I'm in favor of something like this. The problem with something like the TSA as a federal agency is that our legal system pretty much enforces a one-size-fits-all approach from government programs, and that clearly doesn't work in a lot of cases.
I think a terrorist could infiltrate a private system or a publicly run system. I'm inclined to think the incentive structure for catching them would be better designed in the private sector.
Fundamentally there is a problem here though, in that terrorists on planes are not interested in preserving their own lives. So, the deterrent for them has got to be capturing them first, and isolating them from communities where their views and position are of value. These proposals only look at the former of those, whereas we as a society are having a lot of trouble with the latter (think Guantanamo), even though that is probably the appropriate form of punishment for persons holding those views. I really don't think we're going to get a handle on this until potential terrorists know and understand that if caught they will spend time in a place where their behavior is not rewarded, and where they will not be able to maintain the "lifestyle" that they want.
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