TSA - Marketing Bribery since 2005
Sometimes, bribery is the only way to make things work. In nations where the systems put in place to manage and govern are hopelessly complicated, corrupt, or broken, a well-placed bribe circumvents what would otherwise be a painful or impossible process.
Since mid-2005, the TSA has been institutionalizing this process by marketing it as a product: The Clear Card. For a mere $99 a year, travelers are issued a special ID that allows them to bypass airport security as ‘pre-screened’ passengers. Clear Card holders submit themselves to a background check and provide a fingerprint or iris scan which is imprinted in the card and verified electronically in the special Clear security line at the airport.
The ostensible reason this ‘pre-screening’ meets security requirements? The card-holder’s public records have been scrutinized and the eyeball or fingerprint on the card matches the one in the database. The result? They breeze to the gate, while you stand in the cattle pen with your pants unbuckled, dumping your Slurpee in the trash.
I’m assuming it’s much harder to fake a human eyeball than a driver’s license, but it’s important to note that the information the ID is tied to that makes a passenger ’safe’ or not. Electronic verification sounds more reliable than a standing army of highlighter-wielding zombies. But as far as I know, the nifty stripe currently on the back of my state-issued ID is there for just that purpose.
The TSA is unreliable, unreasonable, inconvenient, and inefficient. But for the right price, they can make it all go away.
About The Author - Ben is a formerly aspiring icthyologist, musician, and theologian. He is now a advertising copywriter living in Brooklyn, where he resides with his wife, two cats, and a basement full of bicycle parts. - Visit Ben's site.
I wonder how hard those are to get. My guess? Not very. Scary when you think about it…