TSA has convinced me that I want the government in charge of all my healthcare services

I was travelling through Atlanta yesterday and the TSA provided re-enforcement of my strong conviction on how close I want the government getting to my healthcare services.

from dailybail.com

They had recently opened up more lanes for "TSA Precheck" which is supposed to speed traffic through the security check process.  

I became part of a nightmare of government competence operating at its best.

Queuing Theory Phase One

There were two big and separate blocks of lanes to manage traffic immediately after entering the herding area.  Each block of lanes was big enough to hold about 300 people.  How was TSA managing traffic and queue entry?  Send all new arrivals into side A until it was mostly full and the backup had cleared out of side B.  Then switch all new entering traffic over to side B until it was full and side A was mostly empty, etc.  Is that algorithm a fair way to get everyone through with roughly equal delay?   No.  It was the absolutely the most unfair queuing algorithm they could have implemented with two queues of traffic.  If you ended up at the back of side A you could be behind 299 people.   And the person arriving right behind you could end up as the first person in the queue on side B.  Your wait time was randomly impacted by your arrival time to be either maximum or minimum, if you were separated by one arrival position.  Not sure I would want a government agency managing the queues to see a health care specialist.  The result would be worse than completely random.

What was the right answer?   

Either (a) run one large queue so everyone goes through the queue in equal amount of time.  Or (b) let people randomly choose to enter side A or side B as their own choice, so that the length of queue on either side would at least be approximately equal size at most times, assuming people make rational choice to keep the line lengths approximately balanced.    

Either of the right choices would have produced fairer queue times, and needed fewer TSA staff to implement

from politicalcartoons.com

Queuing Theory Phase Two

So you have made it most of the way through side A queue, and then just as you get to the front of the long snaking queue, they split that line into two separate sub-queues.   One of these sub-queues is served by three different desks with TSA agents checking your documents.  The other sub-queue is served by only one desk with a TSA agent checking your documents.  The split was far enough back from the front of line, that the shorter folks couldn't see what was coming.  Shorter people had to choose one of the two sub-queues, with one running at three times the speed of the other.

What was the right answer?  Keep everyone in single queue that is served by four different agents, to keep service time approximately the same for everyone.

from patriotpost.us

Crank that Machine Onto High Setting

Finally you have made it to the TSA agent that checks your documents, and you move on to let the machines check carry-ons and your person.  The whole concept of TSA Precheck is it moves faster since you don't have to take off shoes, don't have to take off belt, don't take computer out of computer bag, etc.  

But they had cranked the sensitivity of the metal detector up so that it was getting set off by every ones belt, set off by every ones shoes, etc.  They had agents at front of queue telling people to leave belts and shoes on so pre-check could run faster.  And then once you went through metal detector they were sending everyone back to take off shoes, take off belt.   And that often wasn't enough.  Detector was still being set off.   They said zippers and buttons were causing detection, so they had to send everyone through the remote scanner.  Total processing time was maximized with everyone going through metal detector two or three times, and then all have to go through the second machine for further scanning.   I asked why the metal detector was so sensitive today?

TSA agent answer - "We turned up the sensitivity today.  Since we now have so many more people going through these pre-check queues, we want to be extra confident."    

Not kidding. I couldn't make that answer up if I tried.

End result was TSA pre-check lines were running at least 2X slower than the regular queues.  Government competence had achieved the exact opposite of the desired result.  The goal was X.  Government competence achieved "Not X".      

And used much more than a minimal set of resources, to achieve the exact opposite result of intended.

from freedommemes.com

To be somewhat balanced and fair to TSA management in the Atlanta, they don't have a strong pool of workers to draw from.  Clayton County is one of the few locations in the US to have ever lost accreditation for the entire counties public school system due to low standards.  Imagine how low the standards had to be to achieve that distinction.  Those graduates of the Clayton County public school system are the core of the TSA work force in Atlanta.  

http://www.myajc.com/news/clayton-county-school-district-accredited-but-with-catch/gLNeRu9zOUvRotVeR1sNiJ/

from newyorktimes.com

Those that can, do.

Those that can't, teach.

Those that can't teach become TSA government employees.

And of course you know by now that the opening headline was sarcasm. 

TSA in Atlanta provides all the proof I need, that I don't want the government in charge of managing the details of my healthcare services.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

Please upvote and resteem and comment below if you have had your own "TSA experience" that shows government operating at it's finest.

STEEM On!