Saturday, July 07, 2007

If you are 10-years-old or younger, and your friend's house has one of these, which is more dangerous to your health?

I read a book called Freakonomics; a quirky yet accessible book about truth and perception in both the market place and our social environment. The truth deduced therein was generally proved by math analysis whereas conflicting conventional wisdom was proven to come from the mouth of 'experts'; (with vested interests), to the ears of a journalist and consequently to the minds of the reader. About 13% of all doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, car salesmen, and people like you and I are guilty of cheating in some way.

Did you know that teachers cheat as much as their students? (The number two pencil is easy to erase.) That sumo wrestlers throw matches, that street gangs have the same organizational charts as huge 'conglomos' such as McDonalds or Wallmart and that their front line drug dealers; (or burger flippers), make very little money while the generals or CEOs make mad bank.

Ironic how both employees need to live at home with their moms or collect welfare to support themselves.

So, what do guns and pools have in common? Fact: there are 2-million guns for every kid under 10 in this country. The number is HUGE and it is true! There are more guns in the US than there are people. Second fact: though guns are a fast curtain to bad second act* there are 11-thousand backyard pools per child in the US which is 20-times or so less than the amount of guns per child. With this stat in mind, note that both kill about the same amount of children.

Conclusion, fence your pool, teach everyone who lives in the house how to swim and lock your backyard gate and if anyone comes over, watch them swim. [Link]

*The quote came from Raymond Chandler's book Playback

No comments: