An interesting observation

[unixronin]

This paragraph is excerpted, out of context, from an article by bruce_schneier talking about return on investment for business security.  It's an interesting observation nonetheless:

Or take another example: airport security.  Assume that all the new airport security measures increase the waiting time at airports by — and I'm making this up — 30 minutes per passenger.  There were 760 million passenger boardings in the United States in 2007.  This means that the extra waiting time at airports has cost us a collective 43,000 years of extra waiting time.  Assume a 70-year life expectancy, and the increased waiting time has "killed" 620 people per year — 930 if you calculate the numbers based on 16 hours of awake time per day.  So the question is:  If we did away with increased airport security, would the result be more people dead from terrorism or fewer?

(Emphasis above is mine, just lest it be overlooked that it's a speculative number there.)

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I have grumped that particular grump every time I have passed through an airport post-9/11 . . .