Security Tax

I wonder how much of our national resources now go toward paying the “security tax.” That's money spent on things that are supposed to keep us safe.

The most recent bombings in the US didn't do all that much damage. Compared to what happens day to day in a place like Afghanistan, it's just another market day.

The response to those bombings is hugely expensive. NY security is now tighter than it's ever been. Just think of all the police overtime, then add in all the extra private security. Just for fun and games try to imagine how security threats will affect business in the future.

If you were a tourist wouldn't you rethink your vacation plans? Even Paris France, one of the world's top vacation destinations, is seeing a drop in tourism. Would you open a business in a neighborhood that had a bombing or a race riot? If you did you'd have to spend money on security doors, cameras and maybe even private security guards. Someone has to pay for all those extra measures.

We end up with a perfect storm of business activity going down while at the same time security costs are going up. In the United States, in most areas, security was a pretty low cost operation. My home town used to be so safe that businesses would sometimes forget to lock their doors at night. Property crime is still pretty low, but I bet no one forgets the locks these days. More people are installing alarms, heavier locks and employing security companies.

Right now things still aren't too bad, even with the TSA slowing down air travel causing many hours of lost productivity. At least suppliers don't have to worry about highwaymen robbing their supply trucks. Although during the recent Charlotte riots highway traffic was stopped, cargo removed from trucks and set on fire. One more data point. One more incident of the security tax in operation.

Should we include the US military in the security tax equation? The trick with security is to have enough so that doing business is safe, but not to waste money on unneeded services. Thanks to the world we now live in, the basic cost of security keeps going up.

-Sixbears