Thanks for posting that article! Very good, indeed.

He says the same thing about analytical risk comparison and uses the same traffic death example as I did a few days ago in another post.

His economic analysis is even more interesting. There are many fields where the spent money will avert many more deaths and suffering. And that's without causing suffering and death elsewhere as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are undoubtedly doing, which he doesn't mention. If you think that even further, it is likely that if we spent only half of the military budget on education instead, we wouldn't even have all these problems.

Finally, as has been said here and in his article, the problem is not that they are treated as idiots and cowards but that the majority are idiots and cowards.

The other problem is that while our leadership is endowed with some of the most unrestrained powers of any democracy (to the point where it is questionable whether it is a democracy), the leaders shy away from making strong but rational decisions from the top down, especially the rather intelligent and liberal leaders that could make such decisions. The right wing and not so smart leaders, don't shy away from making decisions from the top down except that they are not in the interest of the country but in their own.

Till

It doesn't matter what party is in power - the only interest that matters is their own. Dems and Reps - they're more alike than different at this point.

Yes, to a certain degree. But I bet if Obama had the balls, he'd do similar things to what the writer from the WSJ article or I suggest. He just doesn't which is disappointing but not surprising.

Bush had enormous cojones (or craziness) and used it. But he didn't use them for the right thing.

We have seen that it was impossible to do state health insurance. Imagine cutting the military budget in half and instead investing in education. It sure would be nice but is nothing but a pleasant illusion I use to console myself.

Till