Risk Management

An interesting point from Simon Jenkins, in ” Volcanic Ash is the New Swine Flu Panic “:

The truth is that putting large, heavy bits of metal into the air is just too much for the psyche of modern regulators. They panic. The slightest risk cannot be taken or someone might blame the regulators, whose job is not to assess risk but avert it. Even an airline company, with everything to lose, is not allowed to assess its own risk. Many more will die on roads and elsewhere because of the anarchy the air controllers have unleashed on Europe, but that is not their business. They don’t care.

I will find it hard to trust airlines again, not because they are too risky but because what they do panics authority too easily.

Meanwhile, over at Slate , John Dickerson writes of risk —which he calls “The story of America’s greatest idea.” It’s a little gooey, concluding “risk-takers are alike in one critical way: They are fully alive.” But there is some deep thought pushing its way toward the surface, And it involves the benefits and costs of freedom.