by Dennis Krivda

Created on: January 10, 2010

In their mad scramble to find out why certain agencies within the US government failed to connect the intelligence dots well enough to prevent accused “underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from nearly succeeding in his Al-Qaeda mission, analysts, pundits and critics have ignored one of the most important concepts of the American ideal: the concept of capitalism.

The unfortunate reality is that capitalism stands in direct opposition to programs run by the government.

For example, which is more efficient and actually makes money, FedEx or the US Postal Service (USPS)? Which provide a better education and make money, private or public schools? And which has more exciting programs and makes money, CBS or PBS?

In any free-market economy, profit is king and efficiency drives profit! In any bureaucracy, however, sufficiency is king and lowest-cost-possible drives sufficiency.

With all of that failed dot-connecting and bureaucracy in mind, should Americans really wonder why some inept kid from Nigeria succeeded in moving a stash of PETN through two airports in the crotch of his underwear?

No more than they should wonder how privately-run FedEx trucks easily deliver packages overnight (with a profit margin) while the government-run USPS hemorrhages billions of tax dollars each year.

The time has come for Americans to realize that their government does not always succeed in its programs. It is time for Americans to fully realize that their government should not continue wasting money on certain programs. And where travel is concerned, it is time for airlines to realize that they (not the US government) stand ultimately responsible for the safety of the passengers they have enticed into flying from point A to point B.

Nothing crystallizes further the notion of airlines accepting expanded responsibility for their passenger's safety than the image of an insane man trying to ignite his crotch on an aircraft.

The question, however, becomes, why haven’t airlines accepted more responsibility for air travel security?

As usual, the answer is money; but it's far more than just the cost of additional security measures, or additional airline employees. (The airlines would simply pass that expense on to their paying customers.) Rather, it's the cost of failure that has airlines like Delta balking at the prospect of actually being accountable for the lunatics who occasionally bumble their way through the current security barriers established and manned by the US

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