Homeland Security

Megan McArdle, in her Atlantic Magazine column "Asymmetrical Information" observes:

Homeland security is the conservative version of the national healthcare plans I keep reading.

Precisely. This is what governments do. They accomplish some of the job they are assigned, because many of the workers are well-meaning, somewhat competent folk. But when all the cards have been played, there was a lot of hoopla without much improvement, and it cost five times more (and rising) than expected. How useful did orange alerts turn out to be? Did we get anything back for our increased inconvenience at airports?

Read the whole thing.