Last night, I thought about fire insurance as I read about a new office in Hendersonville that will fingerprint folks who pay the TSA $85 to take the fast lane through their naked body scanners. Then, reading more on the subject in the New York Times, I thought it more like indulgences. A common tater on the latter site captured the essence well. I am linking to the NYT site and pasting the copied comment in the interest of balancing credits and communication. May anyone who thinks I infringe please re-evaluate their policies.
Reading this article, I also thought about what would happen if a lot of people spent this money for the convenience, as well as the fact that many people simply can’t or won’t spend the money for what is a sort of “elitist” perk.
But then I started thinking about how the Global Entry model could be replicated by other government programs/services in order to boost the economy. Let’s first of all consider why people will apply for Global Entry. Well, it’s because TSA has made the process of flying so torturous for everyone (especially those elderly and infant terrorists). So imagine the possibilities for increasing revenue. For example, imagine if highways/freeways were strewn with blockades, except for fast lanes people would pay $100 a month to use. Or imagine if the DMV charged people $100 for appointments but everyone else had to wait eight hours minimum to renew their drivers’ licenses.
The possibilities are endless. Make a process pure [expletive deleted], then charge people for what is practically the equivalent of the OLD system. Global Entry is an ingenious and dastardly revenue generator that we shouldn’t need.
