Kip Viscusi was kind enough to email me his estimates of the risks of terrorism, and gave me permission to share them.

To be more precise, Viscusi told me that, in his judgment, the median number of deaths from domestic terrorism in the coming year will be zero, and the mean number of deaths in the coming year will be 50 – “or about half the number of motor-vehicle related deaths per day.”

If Viscusi is right, it’s safe to say that we’re annually spending more than a billion dollars per life saved. Good grief!

P.S. Kudos to Viscusi for being willing to go on the record here. If Overcoming Bias named a man of year, I’d be voting for Kip.