notbob wrote:

Safety is the curse of modernity.

....and the province of lawyers.

It's not to protect you, but to protect the lawn mower
manufacturer from brain dead users.

The reason why air travel is such a hassle, why we must practically be
sterile and naked and take almost nothing on-board with us, is to
satisfy the insurance industry.

AIG (the insurance company that was too big to fail) was bailed out
because it insured over half the world's air travel industry. If that
company had folded, world-wide air travel would have practically
stopped.

The insurance industry demanded that world gov'ts impliment increasingly
onerous and restrictive requirements on passengers, to the point that
you are basically surrendering many constitutional rights when you're at
an airport (searches, no-fly lists, the ability to travel anonymously,
etc) as a condition for continuing to provide insurance for the
carriers.