The Most Dangerous Career

According to the Department of Health, the most dangerous career in the world is that of lumberjack, or a modern day "logger".  The fatality rate of accidents in this profession is 1 out of every 20 workers, annually.  This is even higher than the fatality rate of our soldiers, by the way, who are at war, and use guns and bombs to fight terrorists with guns and bombs.

 

I am recently reading Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and his co-author.  They cite records from a crack cocaine dealing gang in Chicago indicating that 1 out of every 4 foot soldiers (people who carry out the daily goings on of a drug dealership, buying, selling, trasportation, enforcement, and turf defense) is expected to be killed annually.  That means that every 4 years, the crime boss should expect a complete turnover of his lower echelon of foot soldiers.  Who in the world would sign up for that?  Each District (in Chicago, about 12 blocks) employed 50-100 of these foot soldiers at any given time.  So, every 4 years, in a twelve block area, there are 100 young men willing to throw their lives away for about $3.50/hour (this is what the records indicated they were paid)?!

 

Mahan, the simultaneous brilliance and stupidity of the human race really does leave one speechless.