As Alstein says, that’s roughly the value of a statistical life used in various analyses, specifically including the U.S. federal government’s program evaluations. According to this site the current value used in evaluations is $7.4M.
Thanks! Much more useful to say I got the figure from the EPA than “off the internet”.
It’s also interesting to see how they come by it.
Too bad I cannot sell some of my relatives for that kind of money :)
"Man able to fly from NY to LA w/ expired boarding pass, invalid ID
LOS ANGELES (KABC) – Eyewitness News has learned that a man from Nigeria was able to board a Virgin America flight in New York last Friday and make it to Los Angeles without a valid passport or ID and carrying an expired boarding pass that belonged to someone else."
It’s been said a million times but I’ll say it again: security theater. This agency needs to disappear.
There is no legal requirement that you have an ID to fly. If you don’t have one the TSA should do additional screening (e.g. groping). If anything this story is about the airline’s failure more than the TSA.
You can fly domestically without an ID, you may be subject to additional screening but as long as TSA is able to confirm your identity by other means they will let you on the plane.
http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/acceptable_documents.shtm
I get to tell people all the time about this with my new job.
I’m aware of that already. But here’s the thing: He got through security with a boarding pass that had someone else’s name on it, not to mention it was expired. So if they were able to verify his identity through other means, how did they manage to miss the bad boarding pass? Every TSA checkpoint I’ve gone through around the country always checks your ID against your boarding pass so you can’t fly under someone else’s name – this is required. Yes, the airline screwed up. But so did the TSA.
"ID Requirements for Airport Checkpoints
Adult passengers (18 and over) are required to show a U.S. federal or state-issued photo ID in order to be allowed to go through the checkpoint and onto their flight.
We understand passengers occasionally arrive at the airport without an ID, due to lost items or inadvertently leaving them at home. Not having an ID, does not necessarily mean a passenger won’t be allowed to fly. If passengers are willing to provide additional information, we have other means of substantiating someone’s identity, like using publicly available databases."
Its the TSA, they’re idiots. I had a goon misread my passport a few years ago, telling me my brand new passport had expired. He’d read the “issue date” not the expiration date.
Are you really dim enough that you didn’t notice that this is linked exactly one post above mine? And that I also said that I was already aware of the alternative to not having an ID? Are you posting from an alternate universe where everything I wrote is completely different than in our universe? Fucking seriously.
My point was also about the boarding pass, not so much the ID.
I went through LAX security with a boarding pass with a woman’s boarding pass. At the checkin Kiosk she left her boarding pass and I accidentally picked up. I presented it with my drivers license and was dutifully pass through security. After I was retrieving my baggage, putting on shoes, putting the toiletry clear plastic bag back into my carry, and playing my part in the Kabuki theater of security, I noticed the problem. Fortunately, I had printed out my boarding pass at home.
So I alerted the TSA to the problem, he thanked me but didn’t seem particularly upset that guy who’s sole job is to check ids, did not notice the discrepency.
One time they spelled my name wrong on an assistance pass (I have a very unusual name, and the pass was only to help someone else who needed help getting to the flight… not for actually boarding). The TSA saw what was a pretty minor typo and raised holy hell about it. So, we were stuck there until they had put on an adequate show of authority and inconvenience, we nearly missed the flight, the person I was helping was incredibly embarrassed and I was pissed as hell.
The TSA’s groping and porno-scanners didn’t go far enough.
When I flew back from Florida on Tuesday I opted out of the cancer scanner. The pat down was as reasonable as it could be. The bonus was that I got through the pat down faster than the cancer scanner. Theater at its best.
So, exploratory laparotomy will be part of the screening procedure going forward?
Correct. But don’t worry. The searches will be completely random.
All three companies are telling investors, clients, and the government the same thing: In a world of underwear bombs, cavity bombs, and implanted bombs, see-through scanners are the wave of the future. And they’re probably right, until terrorists figure out how to beat the system again.
More like:
All three companies are telling investors, clients, and the government the same thing: Hey, we can make some cash on the public’s fears again!. And they’re probably right, until hypothetical terrorists figure out how to beat the system again.
Did some international air travel recently and the TSA was much less annoying than ~6 months ago. I honestly barely even noticed them this time. Went through ORD (Chicago) and ICN (S. Korea). Seemed to me like they are trying to be less annoying but maybe I just got lucky.