Cost of Fear is Huge

FDR said "…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  And now we have a price tag on our fear.

Business Week reports on a survey by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and CFO magazine. The survey states that our response to terrorism by S & P companies alone costs more than $100 billion per year!  This number includes cost of insurance, redundant capacity as well as lost revenue from patrons decreased activity.

Law firms also pay a heavy price. Ignore the technology cost of increased capacities and redundancies. Some of these costs are legitimate defenses against natural disasters which face us daily. But, other precautions result from "terror" against lawyers from disgruntled clients in what is becoming an increasingly hostile world.

What a price to pay when you have to have security in your office such that everyone must first show identification, and be cleared by the law firm, before you get on the elevator to go to the law office,  when buildings search the trunk of your car before you park, and when you have to empty your pockets and open your brief case before entering the courthouse!  The terrorists have won, when so few have caused so many to change their course of activity.

Yet, in terms of deaths, other causes produce so much more disaster and we seemingly are oblivious to them.  There is something wrong with this picture. 

Categorized in: Personal Thoughts