Risk is inherent in life because life is inherently uncertain. As Peter Bernstein has put it, uncertainty simply means that more things can happen than will happen – and while some of those things are very good, others are bad and some are very bad indeed. How we deal with those bad outcomes is a crucial part of our lives as individuals and as societies.
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That governments have a role in helping to deal with bad outcomes is undoubted. But seen in the sweep of history, governments have likely caused at least as much risk as they have alleviated. In the 20th century, governments killed over a hundred million people, often their own citizens, and displaced millions more, destroying their homes, their livelihoods, their hopes and aspirations. It therefore seems paradoxical that we should turn to government for shelter from the storms – yet we do, and perhaps nowhere more so than in Australia. ...more.