The TSA’s Wasteful $1.4 Million Random Arrow App

In an effort to make your airline experience better (while ignoring the awful food, government subsidies, and other forms of TSA mistreatment), the TSA has recently spent $1.4 MILLION on an app that randomly displays a giant arrow pointing- *drum roll please* -right or left.

Here’s a passenger’s video of this million-dollar breakthrough technology in action:

Impressed? Of course not.

Are you really surprised that the TSA, well known for its history of incompetence and abuse, spent $1.4 million of your tax dollars to get this silly little program up and running?

Again, it’s just a program that randomly shows an arrow pointing left… or right.

Here’s a video showing how this app could easily be built in 10 minutes:

 

While $1.4 million total may include the purchase of iPads and other cross-platform setup details, the iPad app cost about $336,000 alone, a ridiculous price tag for big arrows.

What’s the motivation here?

In theory, making an app to direct passengers removes liability of bias from TSA agents.
In reality, it’s another way to expand the TSA’s price tag and continue pretending like it’s a progressive, relevant, and necessary agency.

If we’re looking for efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and a better passenger experience, how about shutting down the TSA forever? The TSA has never caught a single terrorist, despite the invasive, awkward, inefficient process we’re all subjected to every time we fly. In point of fact, a leaked report exposed how undercover agents managed to get fake bombs through TSA checkpoints at major airports like LAX and Chicago O’Hare 60-75% of the time (never mind that if someone actually wanted to blow people up, they could do so on a bus, a shopping mall, or a Donald Trump rally. Just sayin’…). By contrast, private security agencies missed detecting fake bombs only about 20 percent of the time.

In short, given the TSA’s abysmal record, it’s not too surprising that this $1.4 MILLION dollar blunder was allowed. It’s a wonder , however, why the public still allows the TSA to be funded AT ALL!