2 ms·
Not really. The point is that people are irrationally afraid of incredibly improbable / statistically insignificant events and the result is bad policy decision
by Thriptic 11y ago
Not really. The point is that people are irrationally afraid of incredibly improbable / statistically insignificant events and the result is bad policy decisions / suboptimal use of resources by reactive governments.
People should be much more afraid of dying in a car accident than dying at the hands of terrorists, yet few people are urgently pushing the government to enforce stronger safety standards in cars / on roads. Instead people demand better security to protect them against things they are unlikely to be involved in to begin with.
- Chathamization 11y agoGood point. If the United States, for instance, used the money for the "War on Terror" on things that were more likely to save American lives (anti-smoking, healthcare, traffic safety, etc.), we probably could have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives (or more, the CDC says that 480,000 Americans die each year from smoking).