The TSA Is A Waste Of Money

“What time should we leave? Two hours in advance? Three? Four?” Millions of people ask these questions each year before boarding a plane. Between driving, security, walking to the gate, and getting settled, boarding a plane exhausts travelers. But out of all of these different activities, one frustrates and restrains travelers the most: TSA security. People ask why they need all this security, complain about the inconvenience it causes, and ultimately annoys people to no end. Created after 9/11, Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, nationalized airport security, increased screening duration, and supposedly increases security on flights. However, statistics say these added security measures never come to fruition and potentially cost more lives than they save.

This happens because the TSA focuses on preventing attacks and does not explicitly reveal how many attacks they have stopped, or if they have stopped any at all. Dylan Mathews, the author of “The TSA is a Waste of Money,” argues the TSA would explicitly reveal if they stopped any attacks, but they simply have not. He cites an instance where the TSA “caught” an Army veteran who attempted to “smuggle” unfinished bomb-making materials into his checked luggage. Mathews argues that if they publicized such a small victory, they would most certainly advertise stopping a real attack. He backs up his argument with convincing statistics: Only 14 percent of passenger flaggings led to a referral to law enforcement, and only 0.6 of those flaggings led to an arrest, none of which related to terrorism. These staggering statistics clearly show the TSA’s current flagging process does not efficiently and effectively capture criminals, and only creates aggravating travel