The Breda Fallacy: TSA, pt. III

The Breda Fallacy: TSA, pt. III

Breda went to the NRA Convention in Phoenix this year. Naturally, she flew. Her travails with the TSA are recorded on her blog. Breda, unfortunately, has one prosthetic leg. Fortunately, she doesn't let it interfere with living a full life.

Here's the thing though. The TSA didn't have to be created, and most of the things critics said would happen have in fact happened as a result. The airlines are private companies, who supplied their own security for their own airplanes before 9/11. Why wasn't that good enough? The airlines could have competed based on the level of security provided. Say you are squeamish. Airline A could advertise that they strip search every passenger, Airline B might require reservations in advance, and advertise no searches, but does a complete criminal and credit check. Airline C might have a list of business people and frequent fliers that go on with no check, but any walk-ins get the strip search routine. Everyone then weighs costs, supposed benefits, time and routing in making their decisions of which airline to fly. The costs are readily apparent in your ticket price. But instead we get the enormous costs ($5.3 Billion in FY 02) and incompetence of the TSA.