Why we worry about the wrong things

[Barb-SAN]

Here's a timely article (Time Magazine, Dec. 4, 2006)

"Cover Story: How Americans Are Living Dangerously (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1562978,00.html) We worry too much about overhyped threats, and ignore the things that really put us at risk."

We've discussed some of these issues here just a few times! :tongue: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1562978-1,00.html

[Passenger Mark]

Interesting article Barb... and a great find!

This speaks to a lot of us!

We similarly misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it's an illusory sense. The decision to drive instead of fly is the most commonly cited example, probably because it's such a good one. Behind the wheel, we're in charge; in the passenger seat of a crowded airline, we might as well be cargo. So white-knuckle flyers routinely choose the car, heedless of the fact that at most a few hundred people die in U.S. commercial airline crashes in a year, compared with 44,000 killed in motor-vehicle wrecks. The most white-knuckle time of all was post--Sept. 11, when even confident flyers took to the roads. Not surprisingly, from October through December 2001 there were 1,000 more highway fatalities than in the same period the year before, in part because there were simply more cars around. "It was called the '9/11 effect.' It produced a third again as many fatalities as the terrorist attacks," says David Ropeik, an independent risk consultant and a former professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

[aerobat]

Barb,

Thanks for posting that! Much food for thought...and discussion! :thumbsup:

Barb