Freakonomics Excerpt

From the book, I just finished. The book is chock full of stuff like this (i've always wanted to say chock full). And no, it's not about porn...

"Risks that you control are much less a source of outrage than risks that are out of your control."

[This] principle might also explain why most people are more scared of flying in an airplane than driving a car. Their thinking goes like this: since I control the car, I am the one keeping myself safe; since I have no control of the airplane, I am at the mercy of myraid external factors.

So which should we actually fear more, flying or driving?

It might first help to ask a more basic question: what exactly, are we afraid of? Death presumably. But the fear of death needs to be narrowed down. Of course we all know that we are bound to die, and we might worry about it casually. But if you are told that you have a 10% chance of dying within the next year, you might worry a lot more, perhaps even choosing to live your life differently. And if you are told that you have 10% chance of dying within the next minute, you'll probably panic. So it's the imminent possibility of death that drives the fear-which means that the most sensible way to caclualate fear of death would be to think about it on a per-hour basis.

If you are taking a trip and have the choice of driving or flying, you might wish to consider the per-hour death rate of driving versus flying. It is true that many more people die in the US each year in motor vehicle accidents (40,000) than in airplane crashes (fewer than 1, 000). But it's also true that most people spend a lot more time in cars than in airplanes. The per-hour death rate of driving vversus flying, however is iabout equal. The two contraptions are equally likely (or in truth, unlikely) to lead to death.

see, nothing to worry about... =) Next up: The World is Flat by Friedman