Anyone who travels frequently by air might have qualms after reading that the United States doesn’t have enough air traffic controllers. Because of the shortage, many controllers regularly work six days per week. Six day work weeks, given our current lives crammed with too much to do, is questionable, but especially, I would think, for those who shoulder literal life or death responsibilities.

I had my own personal experience of employee shortage when I worked for the U.S. State Department overseas. My job included handling the applications of foreigners to visit the United States. U.S. laws forbid the issuance of a visa to a foreign national whom the visa officer has reason to believe might in some way harm the United States.

In the U.S. embassies and consulates where I worked, we didn’t have enough staff to handle the load, due to earlier cuts in hiring. I frequently worked ten and twelve hour days as did my colleagues. Yet we couldn’t possibly interview the sometimes hundreds or more applicants each day per interviewer. Some we could only look at their documents, a poor substitute for a personal interview.

Many passed without interviews, including some young men who highjacked planes for the 9/ll terrorist attacks. Penny wise and dollar foolish?