

A staggering 54% of Americans think the TSA is doing a good job - willvarfar
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/08/poll_americans.html

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vectorbunny
I wonder what this number would fall to if the sample population were
exclusively American frequent flyers. I would venture to guess that
'Americans' generically tend to support any authority with whom they do not
regularly interact, and only become critical of that authority in the face of
direct experience with it.

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vectorbunny
Well hush my mouth. The Gallup data blows my assumption out of the water. I
guess a generation who grew up with 'threat level' as a baseline has a
completely different expectation from someone like myself who grew up flying
on planes with ashtrays. You kids get off my lawn!

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lifeisstillgood
1\. This is part of a much wider survey, the survey itself not specifically
about TSA, so people will have survey fatigue by question 38.

1.a. The results are 54% score 4 or 5 in "doing good job at screening
airports", and 41% score 4 or 5 "screening at airports prevents airplane-
related terrorism"

TO me that 10% drop is very significant - it says that when prompted a lot of
people think that the real underlying aim of TSA is not being handled well.
And that a different survey designed to uncover those attitudes would a) be
fruitful, b) probably tell Bruce what he wants to hear

2\. The TSA is doing the job it was setup to do (look busy at the airports)
very well. It is also true that the job it is notionally supposed to do (keep
terrorists off US planes) is also working well (three incidents IIRR).

3\. If that last comment worries you, then the TSA is fantastic at keeping
alien's named Paul off the US airways.

4\. The survey is not asking if the TSA should exist, if there are better
alternatives to TSA current practises, or if security at airports reduces
terrorist activity. All of which, if asked before asking the killer question,
would garner different results. And notably all of which are the sub-questions
Bruce is asking / implying. Unless you are familiar with Bruce's views on TSA
these questions will not occur to you when asked about the TSA.

5\. Its just a survey.

