Thursday, December 22, 2011

Smoke Screening

Vanity Fair  h/t Behind the Black

quotes:
  • As you stand in endless lines this holiday season, here’s a comforting thought: all those security measures accomplish nothing, at enormous cost. That’s the conclusion of Charles C. Mann, who put the T.S.A. to the test with the help of one of America’s top security experts.
  • Since 9/11, the U.S. has spent more than $1.1 trillion on homeland security.
  • “The only useful airport security measures since 9/11,” he says, “were locking and reinforcing the cockpit doors, so terrorists can’t break in, positive baggage matching”—ensuring that people can’t put luggage on planes, and then not board them —“and teaching the passengers to fight back. The rest is security theater.”
  • Security theater, from this perspective, is an attempt to convey a message: “We are doing everything possible to protect you.”
  • “We’re spending billions upon billions of dollars doing this—and it is almost entirely pointless. Not only is it not done right, but even if it was done right it would be the wrong thing to do.”
From an earlier post, I quote yours truly:
the government invents a problem, suggests solutions that aren't likely to work, and enacts a solution that is least likely to work and costs the most money.

At least Krugman should be happy.  It's like digging a hole and filling it up and then doing it again and again and again...  At least it is better than nothing.   We will have jobs!!!


Update:

Another story from Behind the Black, the video and a comment



Comment:

It is said that we don't have the money for this, but there's plenty of money to waste on ineffective and wasteful projects like security theater. Beam me up, Scotty!

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