4 ms·

The author doesn't mention what seems to me must be an important factor: modern American society is completely geared around safety, and against risk-taking. C

The author doesn't mention what seems to me must be an important factor: modern American society is completely geared around safety, and against risk-taking. Consider all the commercials about how safety is job #1, and so forth. Or the fact that "drive safely" and "have a safe trip" seem to be pretty much the default conversation closers. I'd much rather that people wish me a rich, fulfilling experience than curse me with boring safety.

Ididntdothis 7y ago
"have a safe trip" I hate that line. To me it implies that the trip is dangerous. How about "Enjoy your trip"?
chadcmulligan 7y ago
If people have a lot of debt from education then the safest course that can quickly recoup that debt is the best option isn't it? Who would choose to owe thousands of dollars and be able to choose something high risk and probably low reward? They want to start a family and so need to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible - so whatever pays the best.
PaulHoule 7y ago
I dunno, driving is not a good context in which to take risks. My impression is that the United States is remarkably good in being able to manage risky technologies. One example would be the development of the liquid metal fast breeder reactor. We built the first one, it suffered a meltdown, it was small, really no big deal. (e.g. if you have liquid sodium around, radioactive iodine is going to react with it and the NaI dissolves in the Na or forms non-volatile molten salt droplets.) We build a demonstration plant at Detroit, it had a partial meltdown, they fixed it, got it running again, decided it wasn't worth the trouble a few years. After that we ran EBR II which had very little trouble, and we ran the FFTF which only got in the news because somehow Karen Silkwood died mysteriously making fuel for it. No nukes never talk about those two because there was no drama. France built SuperPhenix and it was a screw-up from beginning to end. They couldn't even build a good roof for the turbine building. Japan was the world leader in nuclear accidents in the 1990-2010 time frame with the criticality accident at Tokaimura and multiple problems at the Monju reactor. There was the time that a sodium fire burned for a long time before they noticed it, when they finally got it running again after a few years they dropped the refueling machine on top of the reactor, took a year to pick it up, and then lost their permit to move fuel around it.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

"have a safe trip" I hate that line. To me it implies that the trip is dangerous. How about "Enjoy your trip"?

chadcmulligan 7y ago

If people have a lot of debt from education then the safest course that can quickly recoup that debt is the best option isn't it? Who would choose to owe thousands of dollars and be able to choose something high risk and probably low reward? They want to start a family and so need to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible - so whatever pays the best.

PaulHoule 7y ago

I dunno, driving is not a good context in which to take risks. My impression is that the United States is remarkably good in being able to manage risky technologies. One example would be the development of the liquid metal fast breeder reactor. We built the first one, it suffered a meltdown, it was small, really no big deal. (e.g. if you have liquid sodium around, radioactive iodine is going to react with it and the NaI dissolves in the Na or forms non-volatile molten salt droplets.) We build a demonstration plant at Detroit, it had a partial meltdown, they fixed it, got it running again, decided it wasn't worth the trouble a few years. After that we ran EBR II which had very little trouble, and we ran the FFTF which only got in the news because somehow Karen Silkwood died mysteriously making fuel for it. No nukes never talk about those two because there was no drama. France built SuperPhenix and it was a screw-up from beginning to end. They couldn't even build a good roof for the turbine building. Japan was the world leader in nuclear accidents in the 1990-2010 time frame with the criticality accident at Tokaimura and multiple problems at the Monju reactor. There was the time that a sodium fire burned for a long time before they noticed it, when they finally got it running again after a few years they dropped the refueling machine on top of the reactor, took a year to pick it up, and then lost their permit to move fuel around it.