Failsafe Cargo

A rational, no-nonsense approach to providing real defense against potential terrorism within our borders while simultaneously putting a big dent in the unemployment numbers. InAmerica provides the turnaround that its namesake desperately needs.

The inspiration for this project comes from 3 basic conditions that exist in our current world. (1) Since 911, the searching of cargo entering the country has been almost non-existent; (2) The emphasis of the terrorists was to think about new methods to defeat our security procedures of people entering our country; and (3) the recent ‘fortunate’ seizure of computer printer cartridges exposing a smart new method to inflict pain and suffering on our way of life.

The exposure of the potential weakness of our cargo system will likely inspire a series of new bureaucratic requirements that will make everyone’s life more difficult. But in the end, the talk show arguments will remain. We have to be right 100% of the time and they have to be right only once. With this obvious fact, a new approach must be developed that essentially eliminates the threat. Considering the track record of government solutions, InAmerica took the problem on. The following is, in essence, InAmerica’s solution for the elimination of delivery of destructive cargo across our border.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE SCOPE OF THE SOLUTION

This of course does nothing to prevent a terrorist or his mule, walking the destructive cargo over our southern border. That is a completely different problem that InAmerica has addressed with its Guest Worker + Program. It doesn’t address the cargo that accompanies people on planes, ships, trains and automobiles that cross over our borders. This solution ONLY covers cargo arriving in shipping containers, rail cars, and aircraft cargo bins, supposedly being shipped from outside the U.S.

The Reality

Let’s face it! Unless you open every single package, in every single shipping container, on every single ship, train or plane, you can never achieve the necessity being being right 100% of the time. That being the discouraging truth, we designed our system around that very premise.

InAmerica’s solution is simple. We open and search every single package crossing our border before we let it continue on to its destination. Are you crazy? That would be enormously expensive. You would have to train and hire tens of thousands of inspectors before you could even begin to accomplish the goal. Yes! That’s exactly right. That is our system.

Another important fact that we must acknowledge is that we are at war with an ideology that intends to disrupt our economy and kill as many of our citizens as possible- with the ultimate goal of bringing down our freedom-based civilization.

THE METHOD

1)The first thing we must do is decide who will operate, manage and control the effort. The likely candidate is the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). However, this effort must be isolated from the rest of the CBP so that its cost can be accurately identified.

2)The individuals hired into the CBP for this purpose will not be Border Patrol Agents. They will be Cargo Inspection Officers (CIO). They will be entitled to coverage in the Federal Employee Retirement Systems (FERS). They will be government employees with a difference. The total cost of carrying out the effort (including the infrastructure, equipment, personnel, overhead, benefits and other costs associated with the program) must be accurately quantified.

3)Next, we set up inspection stations at customs warehouses in our ports, and airports. The station would include equipment to assist the breakdown of shipping containers and bulk storage containers.

4)Then it’s a simple matter. Inspectors will open every single carton coming through the system, inspect the contents against the manifest, and then, closing up the carton and returning it to the consigned batch it came in. Once completed, the shipment is certified as safe, and is then released to continue toward its intended destination. Actually, there are many packages that won’t have to be physically opened. Technology will continually make the inspection process more productive. But in the beginning, it likely will require that each package, carton and box be opened and inspected to ensure it will not harm us.

Complete insanity you say. Enormously expensive you say. As a country, we can’t afford it, you say. Yes all those things are true. But we won’t be paying for it.

For decades, other countries have built their economies upon capitalizing on the American appetite for products. America is still the most sought after market in this world. From now on, having access to that market, by necessity, is going to get a bit more expensive.

Until we can eliminate the threat of terrorism to our country (and some say that is no longer possible), we must continue to ensure that we are right 100% of the time. The DHS will attach a security fee to every single package that crosses our border based upon the declared value of that package. The total fee collected will be matched to the total aggregate cost of operating the Inspection Mission. The cost to our citizens is zero.

Protectionism, you say! Restraint of trade, you say! Countries that trade with us will retaliate, you say! Yes, that might happen. But I doubt it. We have no desire to restrain trade. Our desire is to protect our way of life from the terrorists who have capitalized on our freedoms to attack us. We might even come up with a way to discount the fee to countries that join us in our vigor to destroy the terrorists. But if a country wants to export to the United States, they will have to bear the cost of protecting us from destructive cargo. Either they do it or we do it, but it must be done.

THE CONSEQUENCES

There are consequences for implementing such a system. One of the requirements will be a bit of training for our diplomats on how to handle accusations from those who will be forced to pay the additional security fee.

But not all of the consequences are bad. We have a high rate of unemployment that will remain for quite a while. Each of the new inspectors hired by the CBP, would by necessity, have to be U.S. citizens. Our unemployment rate would go down and the salaries paid by security revenues would be stimulative to our economy.

For a long time, our standard of living and the wage rates that must be paid to maintain that standard have made our products less competitive. Countries that pay slave wages can prosper when the playing field is so skewed. But the security fee, which is absolutely essential to our survival, levels the playing field so that domestic manufacturers can now compete with third world countries, producing better and safer products at the same price. You see, domestic products do not get charged the terrorism fee because the products never cross our border.

HOW CRAZY IS IT?

So as crazy as it sounds, by establishing and training an army of inspectors, we reduce our unemployment, stimulate our economy, inspire domestic manufacturing which further increases jobs in the private sector. Granted this summary is overly simplified, but it is a real world solution to our most compelling problem. That’s not crazy. We’re just refusing to apologize for creating the best economic machine in history.

WHY INAMERICA?

Why does InAmerica come up with these solutions? Because we InNovate. We are managers of change. We are turnaround specialists. We go in, implement the systems, and then, get out. That’s what we do. Now, hopefully, we can convince some politicians to stop obsessing about their culture in Washington and work with us to make us safer… and, in this case… for free!