Topics Ethics

Question I recently wondered what the airport does with all the stuff they steal at the security checkpoint. The person that I asked was annoyed because he claimed it was not stealing because I had an option to not go through the line and board my plane. After thinking about this awhile, I still think it is theft. Rule 1: It is not theft because I have an option to pick A and keep my stuff. Scenario 2: Give me your car or I kill your family member. According to Rule 1, Scenario 2 is neither theft, nor murder, because you have a choice. I think the airline is stealing property. What do you think?

Accepted:
July 25, 2017

Comments

You clearly know that there

You clearly know that there are things you're not allowed to take on a commercial airliner. Presumably you also know that there are reasons why you're not allowed to take those things on the plane, even if the reasons aren't all equally good. Also: you don't have an unqualified right to travel on an airplane. Commercial air travel is regulated, and not by a gang of goons. It's a matter of laws enacted by a government that ultimately owes its ability to regulate to the consent of the citizenry (though not, of course, consent of every single citizen.)

Maybe you think all government is illegitimate and that there shouldn't be laws at all. That's way too big a topic to take up here. But even if air travel weren't regulated by the government, it's a safe bet that airline companies would have some restrictions on what they allow you to take on board. And while someone might argue that rather than making you forfeit your can of gasoline, they should hold onto it until you show up later to reclaim it, it's hard to see why it would be wrong for the airline company to say "Cans of gasoline on the plane are dangerous. If you show up with them, you'll either have to forfeit them or not fly." But if that wouldn't be theft, it's hard to see that what the TSA does is.

Of course, some of the regulations might be overkill, but your question wasn't whether it makes sense to stop people from taking a 6-ounce tube of toothpaste in their hand luggage while letting them take a 4-ounce tube. Your question was whether what the airline authorities do in general amounts to theft (or its moral equivalent.) On that question your analogy doesn't work. (Pointing to the most obvious difference, the goons have no right to your car in the first place; the government does have the right to regulate what you take on a plane, and for good reason.)

So no: airport security isn't a shakedown racket and confiscating your contraband isn't theft. The analogy is too thin to make the case to the contrary.