Quotation of the Day…
by Don Boudreaux
on January 2, 2019
… is from page 168 of Steven Pinker’s 2018 volume, Enlightenment Now:
Though lethal injuries are a major scourge of human life, bringing the numbers down is not a sexy cause. The inventor of the highway guard rail did not get a Nobel Prize, nor are humanitarian awards given to designers of clearer prescription drug labels. Yet humanity has benefited tremendously from unsung efforts that have decimated the death toll from every kind of injury.
DBx: Note to sticklers for traditional word meanings: as Pinker here uses the word “decimated,” he does not literally mean ‘reduced by ten percent.’ He uses “decimated” according to the meaning that it has come to have in recent years: dramatically reduced.
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