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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3168 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 16, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The chance of severe illness and death for a young person is very small. So it's like buying insurance against a being struck by lightning while being chased by a shark. Sure, it may be a reputable company (some may doubt that but let's assume they are) and they'll pay out if that happens in 97% of cases, but should you really bother?

The risk of severe illness doesn't rise with age nearly as quickly as the risk of death.

So it's like buying insurance against a being struck by lightning while being chased by a shark.

I can't be bothered to do the math, but the risk is many orders of magnitude greater than that.

To further your analogy, why are they trying so hard to sell me lightning shark insurance?

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