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What should you fear the most?
3/10/2004
Over the last 3 years America has been engaged in The War on Terrorism. I think it's time we ask the question 'are we safer for this war'? There is no doubt America is now safer from passenger airplanes hitting the skyscrapers. Yet in terms of bang for the buck, the "War on Terrorism" claim to make America safe is the one of the largest boondoggles ever sold to the public. If safety is defined by the standard of 'a terrorist isn't going to kill me', the American public has been shortchanged. The reality is that you were never in any real danger of being killed by a terrorist anyway.
Of the long list of ways people die in America, terrorism, even counting the attacks on September 11, 2001 is a number so small it almost falls off the charts. With the exception of 2001, some 8500 people died at work, including the 2800 killed in the world trade center deaths. Look at the morbidity rates, to understand morbidity on a national basis one of the best sources of information is the National Center for Health Statistics, a part of the CDC where I found these figures on morbidity for the year 2001.
Heart Disease: 700,142
Cancer: 553,768
Stroke: 163,538
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 123,013
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 101,537
Diabetes: 71,372
Influenza/Pneumonia: 62,034
Alzheimer's disease: 53,852
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 39,480
Septicemia: 32,238
Emphysema: 16,242
AIDS: 14,175
Asthma: 4,269
All injury deaths: 157,078
All unintentional injury deaths: 101,537
All suicides: 30,622
All homicides: 20,308
All motor vehicle traffic deaths: 42,443
All firearm deaths: 29,573
All poisoning deaths: 22,242
You might be interested to know on average 110 farmers were killed by tractor roll over accidents and 93 die from lightning.
So putting this data into perspective, in the year 2001 terrorism was a bigger threat to your life than a tractor, though a far smaller a threat posed by your car, a steady diet of Big Mac's, a pack of smokes or unprotected sex. And remember, 2001 was a banner year for terrorism in the USA. In 2004 tractors alone may kill more people than terrorism in the USA.