Do We really Know What We Worry About?

Posted by Sun on November 26, 2006
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The cover story of this week's Time magazine asks "Why We Worry About The Wrong Things?" The printed magazine won't be available till tomorrow, but I got an electronic version of the story from my subscription service. The main point of the article is that we get scared by low probability events while ignoring common dangers in our daily life. The first segment of the article summarizes some of what we fear and what we ignore:

  • We agonize over avian flu, but refuse to take vaccine for common flu which kills 36,000 Americans every year;
  • We fear the mad cow disease, yet keep consuming foods with high cholesterol, which contributes to heart disease that kills 700,000 people annually;
  • We avoid E. coli bacteria contaminated spinach, but fill our shopping carts with fat-sodden French fries and salt-crusted nachos;
  • We install filters on our faucets, run air ionizers in our homes and lather ourselves with antibacterial soap; at the same time, 20% of all adults smoke; nearly 20% of drivers and more than 30% of backseat passengers don't use seat belts; two-thirds of us are overweight or obese.

So do we really know what we worry about?

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Categories : Random thoughts

2 Comments
November 26, 2006

Yes, but salt is delicious and e coli tastes like poop.
People also worry about flying though you’re far more likely to be killed in a car crash than a plane crash.

Posted by Dimes
November 27, 2006

This one:
-Eat Subway for less calories..and eat it with Coke and chips.

And this is not just about health :)
-spend thousands on black friday and then cry about credit card debt. :)

Posted by Golbguru

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