Don't Mess With Taxes

An interesting item that underscores yesterday's post on disaster preparedness appeared in my e-mail box today.

91% of Americans live in places that are at moderate-to-high risk of earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, high-wind damage or terrorism.

That figure comes courtesy of an estimate calculated for TIME magazine by the Hazards Research Lab at the University of South Carolina.

But Americans, according to the magazine's report on disaster lessons a year after Hurricane Katrina,  have a tendency to be die-hard optimists and think that nothing bad will happen to them.

Such an attitude causes us to ignore the dangers we are assured we face. That, in turn, makes us "particularly, mysteriously bad at protecting [our]selves from guaranteed threats."

But the first step toward change begins with self-awareness. So get proactive and preemptive America! It could save not only your finances, but your lives.

Robot photo courtesy of "Lost in Space" television series.