This has another problem that other people haven’t mentioned so far: it’s not really possible to trace a terrorist attack to a specific cause such as lack of a particular security procedure. This means that Rational Airways will cut out their annoying security procedures, but the release they will make you sign will release them from liability to all terrorist attacks, not just to terrorist attacks related to them cutting down those security procedures. That’s a bad deal for the consumer—the consumer wants to avoid intrusive searches, finds an airline which lets them avoid the searches by signing a release, but the release also lets the airline hire known serial killers as stewardesses as well as not search the passengers, and you can’t sue them for it because the release is all-encompassing and is not just limited to terrorism that would have been caught by searches.
Furthermore, then all the other airlines see how Rational Airlines works and decide to improve on it. They get together and decide that all passengers will have to either submit to being stripped fully naked, or sign a release absolving the airline of responsibility for terrorists. The passengers, of course, sign the releases, and the result is that the airlines never have to worry about hiring serial killers or any other forms of negligence either. (Because not screening the stewardesses for serial killers saves them money, any airline that decides not to do this cannot compete on price.)
Later, some smart airlines decide they don’t actually need the excuse and just say “there’s an unavoidable base rate of terrorism and we don’t want to get sued for that” and make everyone, period, sign a release acknowledging that before getting on the plane (and therefore absolving the airline of all responsibility for terrorism whether it is part of the base rate or not.)
Even later, another airline decides to just make its customers promise not to sue them for anything at all (whether terrorism, mechanical failure, or other) before getting on the plane.
Similar things happen in real life, like insurance companies that won’t pay if you have a preexisting condition (regardless of whether the preexisting condition is related to the condition you want them to pay for).
In fact, let me add a comment to this. Someone may be willing to assume some risk but not a higher level of risk. But there’s no way to say “I’m willing to accept an 0.5% chance of something bad but not a 5% chance” by signing a disclaimer—the effect of the disclaimer is that when something bad happens, you can’t sue, which is an all or nothing thing. And a disaster that results from an 0.5% chance looks pretty much like a disaster that results from a 5% chance, so you can’t disclaim only one such type of disaster.
(Responding to old post)
This has another problem that other people haven’t mentioned so far: it’s not really possible to trace a terrorist attack to a specific cause such as lack of a particular security procedure. This means that Rational Airways will cut out their annoying security procedures, but the release they will make you sign will release them from liability to all terrorist attacks, not just to terrorist attacks related to them cutting down those security procedures. That’s a bad deal for the consumer—the consumer wants to avoid intrusive searches, finds an airline which lets them avoid the searches by signing a release, but the release also lets the airline hire known serial killers as stewardesses as well as not search the passengers, and you can’t sue them for it because the release is all-encompassing and is not just limited to terrorism that would have been caught by searches.
Furthermore, then all the other airlines see how Rational Airlines works and decide to improve on it. They get together and decide that all passengers will have to either submit to being stripped fully naked, or sign a release absolving the airline of responsibility for terrorists. The passengers, of course, sign the releases, and the result is that the airlines never have to worry about hiring serial killers or any other forms of negligence either. (Because not screening the stewardesses for serial killers saves them money, any airline that decides not to do this cannot compete on price.)
Later, some smart airlines decide they don’t actually need the excuse and just say “there’s an unavoidable base rate of terrorism and we don’t want to get sued for that” and make everyone, period, sign a release acknowledging that before getting on the plane (and therefore absolving the airline of all responsibility for terrorism whether it is part of the base rate or not.)
Even later, another airline decides to just make its customers promise not to sue them for anything at all (whether terrorism, mechanical failure, or other) before getting on the plane.
Similar things happen in real life, like insurance companies that won’t pay if you have a preexisting condition (regardless of whether the preexisting condition is related to the condition you want them to pay for).
In fact, let me add a comment to this. Someone may be willing to assume some risk but not a higher level of risk. But there’s no way to say “I’m willing to accept an 0.5% chance of something bad but not a 5% chance” by signing a disclaimer—the effect of the disclaimer is that when something bad happens, you can’t sue, which is an all or nothing thing. And a disaster that results from an 0.5% chance looks pretty much like a disaster that results from a 5% chance, so you can’t disclaim only one such type of disaster.