You Bet Your Life: Your Guide to Deadly Risk

What are your chances of living through the next 24 hours? This week? This month? This decade? Will your job kill you? Your car kill you? Your spouse kill you? Will your own bad habits kill you? Or will a rogue asteroid just kill us all?

Each time you lay your head on the pillow at night or set your feet on the floor come morning, you bet your life. Exactly what odds do you face 24/7?

You Bet Your Life applies to you, the individual, the analytical approach insurance companies use to calculate risk: actuarial science. The result is a comprehensive, encyclopedic, real world assessment of more than 1,000 of the risks we take every day of our all-too-finite lives, from boarding an airplane to tempting a shark attack by dipping a toe in the ocean.

You Bet Your Life is introduced by an authoritative essay explaining how professional actuaries calculate risk and how less objective entities--in government, finance, science, technology, and religion--apply their own competing calculi of risk and reward.

ISBN-13: 9780789270177

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Abbeville Publishing Group

Publication Date: 07-19-2022

Pages: 672

Product Dimensions: 8.80(w) x 5.90(h) x 2.10(d)

Sheila Buff has written or developed eight national best sellers. She is an honors graduate of Washington Square College at New York University. Joe Buff holds a master’s in mathematics from MIT and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA). After a long Wall Street career, he became a best-selling novelist.

Table of Contents

The Starting Point: Baseline Data on Life and Death 7

Leading causes of death in the U.S. and worldwide; death rates by age, race, and state

An Actuary's Introduction By Joe Buff, MS, FSA 17

How to think about risk; a primer on probability and death statistics; data sources and data quality; key terms

Causes of Death

Natural Causes

Acute Conditions and Diseases 37

Medical events of sudden onset and brief duration, such as adverse drug reactions, intestinal obstruction, and pulmonary embolism

Chronic Diseases 57

Conditions of longer duration, such as heart disease, cancer, and dementia

Infectious Diseases 134

Disorders caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites

Medical Mishaps, Malpractice, and Murder 191

The dangers of medical care (or lack thereof)

Not Dead Yet 204

Various phenomena on the borderline of life and death, such as brain death, missing persons, and zombies

Other (More or Less) Natural Causes 212

Rare phenomena such as death from fright or during sex

Substance Abuse 217

The dangers of drugs and alcohol

Contributory Factors 238

How air pollution and homelessness can contribute to deaths from natural causes.

Everything Else

Accidental Harm and Injury

Acts of God and Nature 245

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanoes

Animal Attacks 272

Including by livestock, pets, and wild animals

At Home 284

Accidental deaths occurring in the home, such as from falls, poisoning, and house fires

On the Go 336

The hazards of different modes of transport, including cars, trains, and airplanes

On the Job 426

The hazards of various agricultural, manufacturing, service, and knowledge occupations

At Play 489

The hazards of sports and pastimes ranging from miniature golf to tackle football

In the Great Outdoors 574

The hazards of outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, and hunting

Judicial and State Actions

Law and Disorder 597

Dangers associated with law enforcement and the penal system

National Security and Insecurity 609

Deaths on the border; due to terrorism; and due to war

Intentional Harm and Injury

Homicide 617

Murders examined by motive, means, and demographic factors

Suicide 636

Fatal self-harm examined by motive, method, and demographic factors

Suggested Reading 651

Index of Causes of Death 652

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