There’s been a lot of chatter about privatizing airport security in hopes of speeding up the screening process.
Private companies are in business to make money, and since the Transportation Security Administration doesn’t make a product or sell a particular service, the only way a company can make any money is through managing labor costs. That happens when workers’ wages are lower than what the outsourcing party (the federal government) is willing to pay. The TSA is a big bureaucratic machine that already has a high turnover rate due to pay rates, hours and working conditions.
The only way to speed up lines at airports is to hire more people and have more security lanes open. That requires people, and those people come at a cost. Privatizing airport security will only expose the public to longer lines and potential security gaps in the screening process.
Larry Ellingson, Edgewater
This letter was published in the June 1 edition.
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