Former TSA screener says the job does little to keep fliers safe

Re:Former TSA screener says the job does little to keep flie... by Samuel_Michon on Sunday March 10, 2013 @04:26PM (#5353316)

I guessed twice as high, and the number of US air travellers you cited doesn't even account for foreign airlines flying in and out of US airports.

$8.1 billion is a lot of course, and I find the TSA to be a useless bunch, but compared to the defense budget, this is a steal. It's also providing work to 47,000 Transportation Security Officers, most of whom would otherwise be unemployed if the article is to be believed.

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Re:Former TSA screener says the job does little to keep flie... by smsm42 on Monday March 11, 2013 @01:48AM (#5355118)

On defense budget, their build aircraft carriers, ballistic nuclear missiles and supersonic jets. On TSA budget, they have a bunch of dimwits groping your balls (or whatever you have depending on your sex) and taking naked pictures of you. Oh, and buying scanners that then they have to turn off because they lied about safety tests. Not exactly comparable things.

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Re:Former TSA screener says the job does little to keep flie... by wereHamster on Sunday March 10, 2013 @04:43PM (#5353374)

8.1B USD / 47k employees -> a salary of about 172k. That's pretty good unemployment benefits.

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Re:Former TSA screener says the job does little to keep flie... by Samuel_Michon on Sunday March 10, 2013 @04:46PM (#5353388)

"TSA personnel primarily responsible for screening passengers make between $25,518 and $44,007" [1]

$8.1 billion is the entire TSA budget, it's not just wages for Transportation Security Officers. Looking at the budget [2], total wages for screening personnel are closer to $2 billion.

[1] http://mediamatters.org/research/2010/11/29/fox-panelists-ou...

[2] TSA appropiatons bill, page 32: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-110srpt396/pdf/CRPT-110srp...

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