Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence [1]. I don't like the TSA, and I'm not friends with anyone who does, but that's because I live in a strange bubble, surrounded by academics and engineers. Most people don't have a problem with the TSA.

Here's what happened to me the last time I went through a TSA checkpoint:

I opted out. The TSA agent made a snide remark about about me being separated from my belongings, which I'd already put on the X-ray conveyor belt [2]. Then, I was forced to wait about half an hour until an agent was free [3]. There were TSA agents standing around, not doing anything, but, those people, apparently, can't do pat downs.

When an approved agent was finally free, instead of cordially walking me over to the pat down area, he shoved and body checked me to get me to move. After the perfunctory patdown, he pointed to my luggage and said I could go get it. He then stepped in front of me as I started walking towards it and gave me one last shove, away from my luggage.

So, do I like the TSA? Of course not. I have practical and philosophical objections to their process, and perhaps 20% of the time when I opt out, I'm treated like human garbage [4]. But, most people don't have any weirdo academic objections, so they go through the regular process and everything is fine, 99% of the time. Sure, they have to to the airport half an hour earlier now, but that's a small price to pay for what they see as protection from terrorists.

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed/2012/08/09/surprise-gall...

[2] It's a bit like being threatened by the mafia: those are some nice things you have there. It would be such a shame if anything happened to them while you're away. This was sufficient to keep two couples, who initially decided to opt-out, from actually opting out.

[3] https://twitter.com/someben/status/274976070271377409

[4] It's like walking into a random replication of the Stanford Prison experimenter [5]. Will the guards be aggressively unpleasant? Maybe!

[5] http://www.lucifereffect.com/about_content_extensions.htm

For some people, jobs are hard to come by, I would wager the majority of TSA screeners do not have any better paying options, so to criticize them for being a part of a faulty system, or to paint them as being "from a sixth grade mentality", or "trying to get employed with border patrol asap" when they are just trying to provide for themselves and their families, who may not have better options, is pretty unfair.

To criticize the people at the top, that may be fair argument. But for the higher ups and policy makers in the TSA, don't forget the old adage: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it"

I'm quite wary of blaming employees for the perceived faults of their employers. Too much of our economy depends on morally debatable activity for me to be comfortable tossing around the "what you do for a living is bad for America" line willy-nilly.

For example, here on HN people seem very cool with the advertising industry. But I remember in engineering school, the popular refrain was that advertisers and marketing people were leaches sucking out the marrow of American industry. Yet, lots of engineers now happily work for companies in bed with the advertising industry. If you work for Facebook, you work for a company that depends heavily on an industry (advertising) that exists mostly because of government granted monopolies (trademarks), and whose business model depends on getting teenagers (who aren't competent to enter into contracts and don't really understand the ramifications) to give away their personal information in order for advertisers to try and sell them things they don't need. I think you can make a credible argument that what Facebook and similar companies do is morally objectionable, and that "I'm just doing my job" is no excuse for people who work in Silicon Valley figuring out how to maximally exploit these kids.

But I don't really want to go there (glass houses, etc). I think there is too much complexity in the underlying moral calculus for it to be reasonable to go there.

TSA Budget in 2011: $8.1 Billion [1] US air travelers in 2011: 730 million [2]

Cost per screening $11.09

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_Security_Adminis...

[2] http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/number-air-passengers-increase...

*Slightly non work-safe image at the top of the linked page (full body scans of men and women).

Also, one category of TSA agents not mentioned in this piece: Those who seem to revel in the public's disdain because they can easily make a traveler's life hell if the mood strikes them. For example, the agents in this breast milk incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XhnZlmLGK8

Any job that grants authority over other people probably attracts this type of employee.

I've seen this article to be 100% correct in practice. There's a small minority of agents, who when I opt out, laugh and say "yeah, I don't blame you, I wouldn't go through these either." There's a majority who are simply trying to do whatever they can do reduce conflict without getting in trouble. And there's a small population of middle management douchebags that are trying their best to use their tiny bit of authority as a club to bludgeon the public and tell people what to do. These people make the experience miserable, because they tend to be the equivalent of "shift leaders" on the floor.

Overall, what TSA does is a huge waste of money. It's a lot to spend for security theater.

They probably feel better about what people think about them than traffic wardens feel about public attitude towards them.

You can bet more people dispise traffic wardens than they do TSA, though as a non driver I like them.

I have also dealt with the TSA when I traveled to America and it was a fast, most plesant experience. Not everybody has a bad experience with them, they just don't do massive blogs about there experience oddly enough. Though I was not impressed with British Airways at all, but thats another topic.

But if you remove them and one plane has a problem as there was not enough checks and you can bet everybody will demand that the TSA is brought back. If you remove traffic wardens and one car gets parked illegaly then you can bet there would not be a sudden demand from the public to reinstate them. With that think of the traffic wardens and say hello, they are people as well. Though most think you are some kind of crazy for even saying hello to them as they have a installed fear of all members of the public due to intereactions with angry drivers. With that they see all people as angry drivers out to linch them; So the TSA has a long way to go to be truely dispised. More a case of misunderstood and apprecieated in some regards, but that often gets overlooked by the cry's of foul.

Now

The kinds of people that take these jobs generally lack power over their personal lives and seem to enjoy abusing the power they have in their professional lives. Like traffic cops, prison guards, IRS auditors, and others in similar fields, I think many of these people actually revel in being hated and in many cases that mentality contributes to the behavior. It's cyclical.

You could substitute any number of employers in there, it's not just the TSA that's despised. Tax collectors, politicians, financial analysts that nearly bring down the US economy, traffic cops, the list goes on.

I don't concern myself too much with empathizing with TSA employees, it seems like an odd thing to do. There are more important things to worry about in this world.

That's not so much an answer to the question as a rant against the TSA. I've asked one something like that once and she said she was just glad to have a stable job. I have a feeling that's the answer for most of them.

Geeks love to hate the TSA. I travel a LOT - all year - and I find the TSA to be professional and cordial in carrying out their job, more so than any similar agency I've dealt with in other countries.

Some TSA policies are ridiculous, but hardly a reason to waste time to "despise" them. If the TSA were the worst the government can throw at us, the country would be in much better shape.

Walking through new fancy scanner with nothing unusual on my person? Several complaints on the display and I'm groped as they make sure I'm not smuggling whatever.

Carry-on full of hand-soldered electronics and military hardware? Completely ignored.

I really appreciate how they're spending billions of our money. HEY - GUYS TRYING TO FIX THE BUDGET: I THINK I FOUND SOMETHING YOU CAN CUT!

We really need to subject congressmen and congresswomen to these searches. They should not be exempt.

My guess is that is the only way the problem gets taken care of quickly.

Not badly enough, apparently.

There are other despised professions.

Journalists (at least in the UK); politicians (especially when voting wage rises for them and wage cuts for nurses); estate agents (US realtors, not sure if the US feels the same way); and bailiffs.

TSA employee is probably low wage with minimal entry requirements, so it's a good thing that people without work are taking work.

It's lousy for them that the only thing available is for an agency of dubious effectiveness and vast expense.

Maybe they console themselves by thinking that at least it beats working for the IRS? :-)

Seriously, "despised" is a bit of a strong word... inconvenient sure, despised probably not, for most people at least.

Any time I hear about polls being used as "evidence"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA