some time back on these wires we had a discussion of the economics of preventing terrorism, i.e., the huge economic cost of the increased security measures taken since 9/11 vs. the infinitesimal probability of being the victim of a terrorist attack in the United States. [I should say that I am not as offended by the increased security measures as some people, given that 1) the main alternative on the table appears to be racial profiling, and say whatever you want about the pornoscanner, at least it's fair and 2) I think you have to count, in the cost of a terrorist attack, not only the direct victims, but the likely victims overseas of a likely US retaliation.]
There are now signs in the security line at the airport informing you that children don't have to take their shoes off. Presumably, if there is some risk of allowing 13-year-olds to walk through the security checkpoint with their shoes on, then there is also some risk in allowing 11-year-olds to walk through the security checkpoint with their shoes on (I think the cutoff was 12.) Thus, it seems that somebody made a calculation that the cost of making the tykes take off their shoes outweighed the benefit in terms of expected terrorist attacks avoided. I wonder if it might be possible to estimate what value the government placed on a life saved by preventing a terrorist attack when it made this decision. It must be huge. -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
