Here is another must read column from John Stossel.  It discusses how the threat of terrorism is overblown and the fear it incites actually causes deaths and loss of wealth itself.

[Ohio State political science professor John] Mueller also says the threat to the average American is overblown. “Your chances of being killed, at present rates, by an international terrorist outside of a war zone is something like 1 in 80,000,” he says. “It’s about the same as being killed by an asteroid.”

…

Sure enough, since 9/11, the biggest terrorist successes have been the bombings of commuter trains in Madrid and a nightclub in Bali. The death toll from each attack was about 200 people. “Outside of war zones, the amount of destruction is maybe 200 people a year,” says Mueller. “That’s 200 people too many, but that’s hardly an existential threat. In the United States, between 300 and 400 people die every year just from drowning in bathtubs.”

…

Then the bureaucracy hypes terrorism to justify its pork.

“Terror porn” is what economist Veronique de Rugy calls it. Why “porn”? “Because porn sells, [and] terrorism sells even better,” she says. “It’s great for politicians. They can campaign on the fact that they are protecting us. They also can campaign on the fact that they’re bringing more money to their states.”

Lots of small towns do get absurd grants for homeland security. Lake County, Tenn., a rural county with only 8,000 people, got nearly $200,000 in homeland-security money.

“I don’t know that terrorists will come, but I don’t know they won’t come,” Lake County Mayor Macie Roberson told us, smiling.

At least he didn’t do what Columbus, Ohio did: spend it on bulletproof vests for police dogs.

…

Of course, terrorism is a real threat. But fear kills people, too. A University of Michigan study found that an additional 1,000 Americans died in car accidents in the three months after Sept. 11, because they were afraid to fly. We need to keep risk in perspective.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 6:11 am and is filed under War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.