TSA Breakdown in Atlanta – The Cost of Government Non-Delivery

Central planning– be it of regulation, banking, or security– never produces the correct incentives for efficient economic activity. When economic analysis is applied to the latest debacle with TSA, it’s obvious that such a failure of service would never occur in a free market.

The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

After leaving the 2026 Austrian Economics Research Conference—having presented a forthcoming paper on the concept of interventionist non-intervention with Connor O’Keeffe—I experienced some lesser degree of it at the Atlanta airport (with Jeffrey Degner who I coincidentally joined in line). Due to a partial government shutdown affecting the TSA, in which TSA workers are not being paid, many workers are no longer showing up, making wait times to get through security hours long. (In our case, we got through the line in 5+ hours—from about 7:50 a.m. to 1:12 p.m.). While there are plenty of pictures and videos of this phenomenon, especially from Atlanta, they cannot do the situation justice.

Figure #1—Atlanta Line