Re:Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated
by rayiner on Sunday June 16, 2013 @06:22PM
(#5890274)
If we're going with a cost/benefit analysis, it should be noted that the NSA accessing data that AT&T, Google, Facebook, etc, already collect is just about the cheapest sort of counter-measure you could have to terrorism. The "good old fashioned police work" that people keep suggesting would be far more expensive and invasive.
Re:Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated
by stretchwithme on Sunday June 16, 2013 @06:40PM
(#5890351)
Then let people volunteer for it in exchange for lower taxes. If the impact is truly minor, there should be many takers and much savings.
Re:Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated
by rayiner on Sunday June 16, 2013 @07:05PM
(#5890437)
That makes no sense.
Re:Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated
by CamperBob2 on Sunday June 16, 2013 @11:18PM
(#5891237)
What makes no sense is assuming that all of the data collection being discussed has prevented a single genuine attack.
Re:Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated
by stretchwithme on Wednesday June 19, 2013 @12:05AM
(#5903687)
Oh, they told us it has. Shouldn't that be good enough? They've been open and honest so far.
Re:Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated
by threeseed on Sunday June 16, 2013 @06:46PM
(#5890372)
Are you answering the right person ?
Because I was specifically talking about the costs associated with terrorist acts. And that preventing them has significant and widespread benefits to the economy. It's pretty clear that focusing just on ROI alone this program is easily worth the price.
Re:Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated
by stretchwithme on Saturday June 22, 2013 @08:23PM
(#5925717)
And just banning foreigners is free. The ROI is infinite on free things that work. But ROI is not the only consideration.
We could have never allowed foreign tourists into the country. That has a cost associated with it, right? That would prevented Saudis from going to flight school and booking those flights, right? Shouldn't protecting lives be before every other consideration?
No, we have to balance things. Protecting life can not prevent us from living our lives. Not everything the government chooses to do is worth the price.