People severely, severely misprice and misunderstand risk.

Climate change is a good example. If there is even a 0.25% chance that climate change will be as damaging as the worst predictions, it’s worth spending quite a lot of money to ameliorate it or prevent it. And arguing that there is not even a 0.25% chance is frankly fucking stupid given the history of our planet and the science available now.

Climate change is only one example — risk is mispriced in house purchases, retirement plans and so many other areas.

By the way, for climate change if it is as relatively-harmless as even the most rosy scientifically-valid but also unlikely-to-occur predictions, it still means spending hundreds of billions a year.