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U.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable
U.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable - WalletPop Blog
U.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable
Tom Barlow
Oct 23rd 2008 at 10:15AM
Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Transportation
The Washington Times Post recently ran a three-part series that calls into question one of the primary tools used in our "War on Terror", the new U.S. Passport. According to the W.T., U.S. passports are printed and assembled overseas in countries with highly questionable security and sold to us at a 600% markup.
The Government Printing Office (GPO), the government agency that handles most government printing needs, decided to outsource insertion of computer chip and radio-frequency i.d. technology into the newly redesigned passports, and fought the suggestion to limit bidders to domestic companies. The winning company, based in the Netherlands, now receives the passport blanks from the GPO, adds the computer chip, then ships them off to Thailand where the RFID antennas are added. Remember Thailand? Land of government instability nestled in the crook between India, Russia and China?
UPDATE: The GPO responds.
The new technology allows border guards to scan the passport and wirelessly access information encoded in the computer chip. Producing these new passports costs the GPO $7.97, which it marks up to $15 to sell to the State Department. The State Department then marks them up to $100 to sell to us.
Edited to cut the crap. Try a paragraph or two, and the link - minus all the email crap. You know where the rules are if you forgot what they are. Thanks. -Shattered
U.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable - WalletPop Blog
U.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable
Tom Barlow
Oct 23rd 2008 at 10:15AM
Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Transportation
The Washington Times Post recently ran a three-part series that calls into question one of the primary tools used in our "War on Terror", the new U.S. Passport. According to the W.T., U.S. passports are printed and assembled overseas in countries with highly questionable security and sold to us at a 600% markup.
The Government Printing Office (GPO), the government agency that handles most government printing needs, decided to outsource insertion of computer chip and radio-frequency i.d. technology into the newly redesigned passports, and fought the suggestion to limit bidders to domestic companies. The winning company, based in the Netherlands, now receives the passport blanks from the GPO, adds the computer chip, then ships them off to Thailand where the RFID antennas are added. Remember Thailand? Land of government instability nestled in the crook between India, Russia and China?
UPDATE: The GPO responds.
The new technology allows border guards to scan the passport and wirelessly access information encoded in the computer chip. Producing these new passports costs the GPO $7.97, which it marks up to $15 to sell to the State Department. The State Department then marks them up to $100 to sell to us.
Edited to cut the crap. Try a paragraph or two, and the link - minus all the email crap. You know where the rules are if you forgot what they are. Thanks. -Shattered
