flynn23 wrote: Jello wrote: flynn23 wrote: Jello wrote: noteworthy wrote:
This is more exploitative than meditative, but it is about the speed limit -- specifically, the 55 mph posted limit on the I-285 loop around metropolitan Atlanta, GA. If the authorities were inclined, the students who executed this "meditation" could probably have been tried for conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, or some such thing. Fortunately for the students, the police were too busy ticketing the drivers going 75 mph in the other direction. That, and worrying about all the foreigners at the ports. (Pay no attention to the abundantly obvious fact that the containers are foreign, too, and most of them are not being inspected by anyone, regardless of citizenship.)
While it is true that containers are foreign, customs uses a crude reputation system to determine which cargo needs searching. Responsibility for the content of containers is placed on freight forwarders, who do the validating of customers and essentially 'vouch' for them. There's a government mandated procedure for establishing credibility with a forwarder, and if they screw it up they are in big trouble. What this means is that cargo from new customers is often inspected, and cargo from old customers routinely shipping cargo is not. So while its true that most cargo does (and must) go uninspected, its not as bad as you might think. Its a privatized security model that not many people seem to understand. Is it adequate? Probably not. But its something.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "privatized security model." That's especially effective when you're dealing with national security. It'll be even more effective now that it'll be privatized outside of US jurisdictional effect. But I'm sure some guys in Texas will get rich in the process.
In the case of ocean cargo... I'm not sure there is any better way to direct the limited resources of customs agents than a private reputation system.
I don't know of a specific suggestion, but where there's a will, there's a way. The same can be said for immigration/border patrol, and other 'problems' that the US spends billions barely mitigating.
In this case, I think its not so much the way the resources are directed (the private system), as it is that there aren't enough resources to be directed. More customs agents, etc. RE: A Meditation On the Speed Limit |
