A thought experiment on the human cost of Security Theater
I’m not a mathematician, but here goes:
Richard Reid, aka the “Shoe Bomber” death toll: 0
Average number of airline passengers in the United States annually: 660 million, or 5.28 billion since Richard Reid lit his shoe on fire in December of 2001, resulting in the TSA rule that passengers take off shoes in security lines at airports.
Assuming an average amount of (dead) time of only one minute per passenger to take off and put back on their shoes in security lines since December of 2001, that equals 5.28 billion dead minutes, which equals 10,039 life-years lost. (5.28 billion dead minutes divided by 525,948, the number of minutes per year.)
10,039 life-years divided by 78, the average life-expectancy in the United States, = 129 full human lives lost to time taking off shoes in security lines since 2001 (or 264 lives, if you use the average age of 40 for the traveling public, and divide 10,039 life-years lost to shoe-taking-off by 38, the remaining portion of their life-spans.)
Summary: Richard Reid killed 0 people with his shoe bomb. The TSA has killed 264 people with its overreaction to his failure.
