
The eternal optimism of the Clear mind - twampss
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/06/23.html
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smanek
Maybe it's just me, but Clear always pissed me off. You shouldn't be able to
pay _the government_ to cut to the front of the line.

I'm perfectly fine with paying more to the airline to cut to the front of
their line. But everyone should get equal service from the government.

~~~
liquidcool
Well, you can already pay extra to expedite your passport application. I've
paid the DMV a couple extra dollars to renew online instead of in person or
via mail. It's equal service to those who pay for it.

By the same token, why not have an "Oh, crap!" kiosk for passengers running
late? They can pay an extra 20 bucks and get a pass that allows them to use a
shorter line. Maybe airlines could include it with first class tickets (you
certainly pay enough for them, it's not like you'd notice the extra $20). And
if you don't want to pay, you use the longer line your taxes bought. If they
price it right, they could hire more people for both lines and everyone wins.

~~~
Tichy
Not sure how airports in the US work, but aren't first class tickets already
supposed to give you a shorter line? I am pretty sure the last time I booked a
flight (extra-low economy class - easyjet) there was an option to pay for a
shorter line.

~~~
patio11
You can buy your way out of the line at the gate (first class boards first,
despite the fact that this is decidedly non-optimal from an operational
perspective), but the security checkpoint is not at the gate. The gate line is
managed by the airline and is primarily concerned with ensuring passengers get
on the right plane. (They saved me from an impromptu trip to Seattle when I
was to the JavaOne conference. International travel does strange things to the
brain.) Another concern is earning the airline money through rigidly enforcing
the class system. (+)

The security line is managed by the TSA (an arm of the government) and its
(stated) primary purposes are to ensure bad people and bad things do not get
passed it.

(+) I watched the 2nd to last person onto the plane get yelled at for going
through the left priority boarding line when she was holding an economy
ticket, and holding an infant to boot. They made her back up three feet and go
through the economy boarding line. It someone could have telepathically read
my thoughts they would have probably taken away my Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
card.

------
grandpa
> Now, the TSA doesn’t even trust _pilots_

I'm sure they trust _pilots_. It's random people wearing pilot uniforms
they're trying to stop.

~~~
Lagged2Death
How does funneling pilots through the screening line do anything to prevent
non-pilots from dressing as pilots? Real pilots ride as passengers, in full
uniform, all the time.

I expect the reason is even simpler than you suggest; a total lack of
exceptions to the screeing rules makes for simpler screening, simpler
training, fewer chances to make mistakes, etc. And it's easy.

~~~
tptacek
It doesn't prevent non-pilots from dressing as pilots. It just means
(ostensibly) that even if you can pass as a pilot, you can't bring shampoo on
the plane.

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chris11
And I'm sure dropping the background check would actually make the service
more attractive to people.

I'm sure that there is tons of personal info that could be found by someone
motivated enough, but I'm still not comfortable giving out detailed
information on myself. So I would be hesitant to use a service that required a
background check, especially if I don't think the information is needed.

And not requiring a background check would have let them be more flexible. For
example, they could have started selling at the airport one-time use of their
lines.

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davi
The background check was probably necessary to get TSA to let people cut in
line.

~~~
brown9-2
But the fact remains that it doesn't make much logical sense as a requirement
(to do background checks of people who go thru the same checkpoint as those
who don't get background checks); if they were forced into a bad business plan
by the government, they were still silly enough to stick with a bad business
plan and pray that one day it would suddenly start to work.

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gojomo
A simpler version of 'Clear' -- just paying to 'cut' in line -- could be run
on 'Paris Metro Pricing', as described in this paper about network routing:

<http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/paris.metro.minimal.txt>

Specifically, make two lines. They are identical except one costs a small fee.
As long as people can accurately observe queueing times, they'll choose
appropriately to get a value in time saved greater than the out-of-pocket
costs.

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praptak
What kind of background check can you get for $200? I doubt they could find
out anything less obvious than past convictions or frequent visits to
countries associated with terrorism.

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agrinshtein
Amazing how people take the externality of what Joel is trying to say and yap
uselessly about that whilst completely disregarding the main point.

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torpor
Its classist thinking like this that produces the most despotic societies yet.

