By Ron Paul
February 04, 2019 "Information
Clearing House"
- Hard
as it is to believe, airline travel recently
became even more unpleasant. Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) employees
being required to work without pay for the
duration of the government shutdown resulted
in many TSA workers calling in sick. The
outbreak of “shutdown flu” among TSA
employees forced some large airports to
restrict the number of places mandatory TSA
screenings were performed, making going
through screening even more time-consuming
and providing one more reason to shut down
the TSA.
Airline security should be provided by
airlines and airports. Private businesses,
such as airlines, have an incentive to
ensure their customers’ safety without
treating them like criminal suspects or
worse. Security personnel hired by, and
accountable to, airlines would not force a
nursing mother to drink her own breast milk
or steal a stuffed lamb from a
wheelchair-using three-year-old and subject
the child to such an intensive screening
that she cries “I don’t want to go to
Disneyworld.” Those who claim that the TSA
is necessary to keep us safe should consider
that the Department of Homeland Security’s
own studies show that TSA’s screenings and
even the intrusive pat-downs are ineffective
at discovering hidden guns, explosives, and
other weapons.
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TSA employees have no incentives to
please, or even care about the well-being
of, airline passengers. Instead, their jobs
depend on pleasing politicians and
bureaucrats. If we have learned anything
since 9/11, it is that most politicians are
more concerned with appearing to be “doing
something” about security than actually
reducing the risk of terrorist attacks. That
is why politicians’ response to 9/11 was a
series of actions — such as creating the TSA,
passing the PATRIOT Act, and invading Iraq —
that trade our real liberties for phantom
security. Sometimes, pro-TSA politicians
will bemoan the TSA’s “excesses” and even
call for “reforming” the agency in order to
pretend they care about their constituents’
rights.
Restoring responsibility for providing
security to private businesses will
encourage the development of new and
innovative ways to more effectively provide
security. In a free market, airlines and
airports could compete for business on the
basis that their flights are safer or their
screening is less unpleasant then that of
their competitors. If airlines were able to
set their own security policies, they would
likely allow pilots to carry firearms.
Private companies also strive to be
consistent in providing services. Therefore,
a company providing private security would
never inconvenience its customers because of
a “temporary shutdown.”
Because government operations are funded by
coercive taxation rather than voluntary
choices of consumers, federal officials
cannot rely on the price system to inform
them of whether they need to increase or
decrease spending on airline security. In
the private sector, businesses that charge
more for security — or any other good or
service — than individuals are willing to
pay lose customers. Also, if businesses do
not spend enough on security, people
concerned about safety will be unwilling to
use their services. Privatizing airline
security is the only way to ensure that the
“correct” amount of resources is being spent
on airline safety.
In the 18 years since Congress created the
TSA, the agency has proven itself incapable
of providing real security, but more than
capable of harrying Americans and wasting
taxpayer dollars on security theater.
Congress should permanently close the TSA
and return responsibility for security to
private businesses.
Ronald Ernest Paul is an American author, physician, and retired politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1979 to 1985, and for Texas's 14th congressional district from 1997 to 2013. http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/
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