SHOCK REPORT: Anti-Terrorism Spending in US 50,000 Times More than Any Other Cause of DeathBy Justin Gardner This warped system of revenue collection is complemented by an equally warped system of spending. The practice of lawmakers bringing home pork was highlighted by the infamous bridge to nowhere, but in terms of how government spends money on saving lives, we find its priorities in a truly backward state. A statistical analysis found that more than $500 million spent per victim on anti-terrorism efforts, while about $10,000 is spent per victim on cancer research. Indeed, there is a long list of things that kill people at a rate far higher than terrorismand could benefit from more resources for study and preventionbut get far less funding from lawmakers. Heart disease, cancer and stroke top the list of killers, taking about 1,356,000 lives every year. In the 21st century, about 3,000 Americans lost their lives to terrorism, averaging out to 200 fatalities per year. Cancer and Heart Disease be damned there are people across the globe that hate your freedom. However, it is estimated that federal government spends $150 billion annually on anti-terrorism efforts, while it spends $2 billion a year to combat heart disease and about $300 million a year on research into strokes. Diabetes, pneumonia and Alzheimers disease are other threats to human lives that get hardly any funding relative to terrorism. One obvious answer to why spending is so disproportionate to magnitude of threat is the existence of the military-industrial complex. Reaping death and destruction overseas is a very profitable business. Much to the disappointment of President Dwight Eisenhower, government and the makers of bombs and bullets have fused into its own leviathan. As Think by Numbers points out, there may be other factors contributing to the phenomenon of misplaced spending. Evolutionary psychology may be able to explain this phenomenon. The human brain has been around for 200,000 years. More than 99% of that evolution has been characterized by starvation and general scarcity of resources typified the environment in which humans evolved. In this situation, violent acquisition of resources from other groups was often a necessary survival technique. Hence, human brains most hyper-vigilant and aggressive toward human threats (i.e. terrorists) were most likely to survive and propagate these characteristics. On the other hand, throughout evolutionary history medical science was almost non-existent. Hence, there would be no survival value added by a tendency to focus on more likely health-related causes of death. We just werent designed for these times. Interpersonal or inter-societal conflict seems to naturally occupy our thoughts more so than other forms of death. Dangers that are imposed on us are amplified, while risks from voluntary behavior such as driving a car are downplayed. It is important to note that the more the US spends ostensibly fighting terrorism the more dangerous the world becomes, creating a vicious cycle. As we have pointed out in the past, the aggressive, murderous, and tyrannical US foreign policy of occupation and war does far more to create terrorism than stop it. Since 9/11 the United States has likely created a million Osama Bin Ladens by blowing up their children or family members in surgical drone strikes. Society, unfortunately, seems to be fascinated by human conflict. With all of our knowledge and capacity for reason, far too many people cant overcome the tendencies of the primitive brain. We know how to avoid war and we know that violent conquest is no longer needed to obtain resources, but willful death and destruction still run rampant. We also know that things like heart disease and cancer are far more likely to take our lives or the lives of loved ones, yet we allow government to spend most of our money on bombing the bogeyman in some distant land. Its no coincidence that the mainstream media, which is now an arm of government, sets the public policy agenda. Fear of the bogeyman gets high ratings, and the stoking of that fear guarantees access to the inner circles of Washington D.C. As the presidential election plays out, fear and fascination with human conflict will again be major topics of the candidates. It is in their best interest to counter the advance of human enlightenment and perpetuate the status quo of wildly misplaced spending priorities. Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. Wow. Great Article!!! Particularly liked the reference to the primitive brain and the NEED to attack for survival. The pie graph was amazingly impactful. The description of our countrys misplaced efforts invaluable. Will spread this one around. THANKS! One of the most prominent vestiges of the primitive brain is religion, We are not going to benifit by that money. They are gathered all over the country waiting for the call to strike. That money is lining pockets everywhere but ours. Actually the statistics show that a person in the U.S. has a 55 times greater chance of being killed by an irate cop than a terrorist. Much of the anti terrorist budget actually goes to financing terrorists. The Western intelligence agencies have long worked with terrorists for their own covert geopolitical agendas, as documented in the book CIA: Crime Incorporated of America. This is STEALING (basements/garages stuffed with OUR equipment) running up OVERTIME standing around doing nothing for no reason. And BRIBE laundering big contracts awarded for NO WORK. Evolution is not the cause of militarist imperialism. Religion is the cause of militarist imperialism. Paid mercenaries(terroist?) by the folks that condemn them on the boob tube how ironc. The spending is not to reduce terrorism because the evil governments ARE the terrorists! 