I see all these comments about TSA being theater, and while I don't disagree, we should remember that these are real people with families to support.
A Government job is historically seen as a "safe" income. These employees (whatever you think of their job's worth) are currently out of pay with no idea when they'll be paid again.
Given how many American's live paycheck to paycheck, it's not a stretch to imagine that there's kids out there going hungry tonight because of this failure.
I don't see why a government job should be any safer than a private sector job, unless we explicitly state that the government's job is explicitly to be the employer of last resort for people who can't find jobs otherwise.
Is there something that makes a TSA employee different from, say, a food service sector employee?
That's certainly not how I want my tax dollars to be spent and I'm not sure most people would either if the question was explicitly posed this way.
I think you can acknowledge that TSA is theater while still having empathy for the people that work there. I would imagine most people don’t want to work there and they probably understand the faults in the system more than most.
A Government job is historically seen as a "safe" income. These employees (whatever you think of their job's worth) are currently out of pay with no idea when they'll be paid again.
Given how many American's live paycheck to paycheck, it's not a stretch to imagine that there's kids out there going hungry tonight because of this failure.