[Spooky23]

The upshot of TSA is that because it's a single government organization, it's easy to identify the costs and quality of operations.

Pre-TSA, we were wasting the same or more amount of money on private contractors of dubious quality. But you didn't really know how much, as the cost was spread across thousands of airline/airport authorities/municipal government combinations.

[dragonwriter]

I would be very surprised if the federalized version wasn't much more expensive -- for one thing, because its centralized its a bigger and more profitable target for vendor lobbying for requirements that necessitate the purchase of particular goods and services (whole body scanners, etc.)

[grandalf]

Are you sure it was the same amount of money? Before the TSA, airport security agents were very minimally trained and there were no expensive body scanner machines.

I would not be surprised if the TSA version of airport security cost 10x the previous version.

[Spooky23]

Don't underestimate the cost of bodyshop-style arrangements. The guy fumbling through your luggage may have been making $8/hour, but the billing for it could have easily been 8-15x the salary.

[harkyns_castle]

A good point. It seems to me an increase in people annoying you throughout the flying process is only going to have increased costs, coupled with expensive hardware and presumably billions in software too.

Speaking for Tasmania, there's a desolate looking guy on the Hobart bomb scanner device every time that flags me over. His face says it all, "I know this is a bullshit job, just submit and it will be over with quickly, I collect a paycheck, you feel bad for a little while."

[mindslight]

The true cost dwarfs what any budget says - the time that everyone wastes (getting to the airport needlessly early, waiting in line, being molested, missing flights, obessing over packing the "wrong" thing, and inventorying your luggage immediately after landing). When you add this up, how many human lifespans has the TSA killed?

[harkyns_castle]

Definitely a way to find a silver lining hehe. Maybe we're getting better at shining a light on things, and they'll crawl back into the slime over a generation or two.