NSA, What Is The ROI?

That's the question no one in Washington wants asked, much less answered. The clear answer is there is no positive ROI (that's return on investment for those who don't know) on the NSA and its nefarious activities.

N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens - NYTimes.com -- From a comment to the foregoing NY Times article -- "The NSA may be collecting everything happening on Earth, but they're certainly not preventing terrorism. For example, the Times Square bomber was discovered by a nearby street vendors. The shoe bomber was discovered and stopped by passengers on the plane -- despite the fact that his father pre-warned our 'intelligence' community that his son was a terrorist threat. American intelligence is clearly an oxymoron. Collecting everything does nothing more than create a larger haystack for the NSA morons to comb through. This is not rocket science, eh? Stop the NSA. What they're doing is not only a waste of time and money. It's destroying the U.S. constitution."

And of course, God forbid anyone asks about ROI for other US government programs (and that includes tax expenditures and other welfare for big corporations and fat cats). Here's the shocking truth that no one in Washington wants to admit -- from Obama to Republicans and Democrats, bureaucrats, K Street lawyers and lobbyists -- we don't need MORE of hardly anything -- legislation, funding, programs, etc., we need LESS. That's the way forward out of the present mess -- simplify and streamline government, government programs, laws and regulations.  That is a sea change, and many in the current system will not be able to comprehend, much less adapt to the new paradigm -- some because it threatens their power, their turf, their bureaucracy, or their income. Who is going to lead the way forward? Do we have ANY leaders?

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NSA Surveillance: probably not very effective at stopping terrorism--but boy is it lucrative!

We know US government security work is lucrative--for the growing bureaucracy, its contractors, and workers (as the case of Edward Snowden tells us) and I'm sure the political contributions are huge which flow from the variety of business interests benefiting from all the feeding at the public trough, however none of that assures program "effectiveness"--so what is the ROI on our billions wasted on "security?"

Surveillance helped stop plots against NYSE and New York subway, official says - U.S. News

Money Quote: "Joyce said, however, that he could not pinpoint how important the surveillance programs were to stopping the (terroristic) plots."

Probable Meaning: "not very important" (but boy are they lucrative!)

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