You Are A Liar - 'Cause You’re A Homo Economicus

Humans underestimate risk — just ask all the people who died in cars before the era of mandatory seat belt laws and who worked for low wages in jobs with extremely high workplace health risks. Yes, you are lying to yourself.

Homo economicus [us as humans] is self-blinded of externalities, risk, and especially long-term costs. Proof is seen in global warming. Civilization marches on and upward, but it is built on a mound of mass graves. The people of the present do not know that these former people were both unaware and self-ignorant of the risks and costs in their own civilization; so, they were not actually making honest decisions in their true own best interest, but in what society had tricked them into thinking was their best interest.

The biggest factor in this is ignorance. For example, Republicans have forbidden the US to fully study and record the costs of firearms to America. Yes, studies do occur, but not on the scale and with the precision that could occur if all law enforcement worked together across the whole country to gather reliable and long-term data. The End Family Fire campaign seeks to circumvent this omission in America and present facts and solutions even if the wider society is willing to ignore ‘knowing’ dangers, risks, and data. This too is a family values cause.

Air pollution is the world’s most ignored and invisible killer. The numbers are beyond belief. New car smell is dangerous — it is made of ‘leaking’ chemicals. New house smell. ‘Fresh’ carpet. “Fresh’ plastic. All cut concrete (silica) dust. Paint smell. Carbon is cancer in/of the air. Why did early humans die so young — campfire ash/smell was certainly one of the greatest causes. Gravel road dust is probably/possibly as toxic as cigarette smoke. It is often hard to find causes of illness, but when you do look you do find it and in large numbers risks do appear more clearly. Yes, one case is not a clear picture, but data can and will eventually show you …just as all the pixels in your television show you the world.

Data is a seat belt that lets us see risk, choose our risk tolerance, avoid risk, and reduce risk.

Be well