Click to enlarge graphic
With the latest “scare” over increased terrorism in the US, this graphic provides a bit of reality. Overall, you are 3,000 times more likely to die from a preventable event in the US than from a terrorist attack. That’s right, 3,000 times.
If you really want to be scared, be scared of heart disease. You’re 1,000 times more likely to die of heart disease than terrorism.
You’re 50 times more likely to eat yourself to death than to be a victim of terrorism. After the Nathan’s hotdog eating contest and supersizing, it’s not all that surprising…
Here’s the kicker: you’re 60 times more likely to kill yourself than to be killed by terrorism. That’s right, it’s more likely that you’ll do the deed yourself.
So, the next time someone tries to scare you with the big, mean, evil-doers, just think about: donuts, cheeseburgers, butter, pizzas, cigarettes, depression, etc. – they’re far more likely to kill you than any terrorist.
And a thought, just a thought. If we’re so concerned with preserving human life (particularly human life in christian democratic countries) shouldn’t we be spending most of our resources to reduce that preventable 10 million person loss rather than chase the phantom of terrorism?
We should be ashamed, the terrorists have won because as a nation we’re preoccupied (nee’, terrorized) by their actions. Pitiful. Tweet
Well, this is a bit misleading because we all have to die of something.
People are scared of things outside of their control. Eating badly, smoking and even suicide all all within our control. Drunk drivers, murderers, home invasion robberies, second hand smoke and terrorists are outside of our control. While I’m sure the terrorists won’t top that list in terms of the number of deaths, it might top the list of things “most out of our control.” Thus, they are feared the most.
I think what this chart is really good for is determining the ratio of spending wrt the actual threat. We should be spending tons of money preventing heart disease, cancer and smoking related deaths and only a tiny fraction on combating terrorism. I’m sure if there were a similar chart showing how much has been spent preventing each of those causes it would, sadly, be reversed.
I don’t agree it’s misleading. True, everyone dies of something, but “accidents” aren’t included on the chart for a reason. These are, by and large, preventable causes. If car accidents were added, you’d be 14.3 times more likely to die in an auto accident for instance.
As for things in our control, that’s exactly the point. If you control what you can, don’t worry about the rest because there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
Meanwhile, prevention. I think we’re way too engaged in all of these areas in reaction. Right now, to “prevent terrorist attacks” we’re spending $1.7B per day. Is that a good investment when looking at the data?
We’re probably closer on this than this comment indicates and I do understand your point. But, things are seriously screwed up and the equivalent of a hard slap is required to get people to snap out of it…
Blog Hopper…
Hi There. I’m blog hopping….
Ok Mark, whatever floats your boat…