[LINK] Airport to tag passengers

[Deus Ex Machina]

Howard Lowndes [lannet at lannet.com.au] wrote:
> 
> Deus Ex Machina wrote:
> >Howard Lowndes [lannet at lannet.com.au] wrote:
> >>If you did some background research on Jan, then you might just find 
> >>that she is a little better qualified to speak for the consumer than you 
> >>are.
> >
> >I never pretend to speak for the consumer. I am well aware of jan
> >qualifications.  the consumer speaks quite happily for themselves with 
> >their feet and
> >their dollars. why we need do gooders to add costs to the "protected"
> >consumer is really a mystery to me. perhaps you care to explain?
> 
> Unfortunately not all consumers are born equal, and some really do need 
> protection from those, like yourself, who are strong believers in caveat 
> emptor; why do you think ppl still fall for 419 scams and the like.  The 
> added costs to business of consumer protection are as a direct result of 
> the unethical, and exploitive, practices of many businesses.

which all smack of elitism. champion of the weak, protectors of the poor. etc etc.

just because someone has good intentions does not make the outcome good.

intention is not good enough.  I dont dispute for a minute that the Jans
of the world have good intention, I dispute that the outcome they
occasionally manage to inflict are good or worthwile outcomes.

without getting into specifics, I sat quietly and allowed some dogooders
to inflict what I now see is quiet serious damage on a set of
consumers and now rolling it all back is near impossible. and it was all
done with the best of intentions.

clear harm must be demonstrated before any costs or damage are inflicted
on consumers by way of dogooderism.

given there are already surveillance in airports, (and there certainly
will be where there isnt already), the surveillance phobic are not really any
worst off with rfid tags. there is just no demonstrable consumer harm
that needs rectifying. the only issue is wether there is any worthwile
outcome for using them, which has nothing whatsoever to do with privacy.

Vic