Comments by "bruzote" (@bruzote) on "CBC News" channel.

  1. 22
  2. 10
  3. 9
  4. 5
  5. 4
  6. 4
  7. 2
  8. 2
  9. 1
  10. 1
  11. 1
  12. 1
  13. 1
  14. 1
  15. 1
  16. 1
  17. 1
  18. 1
  19. 1
  20. One should not gamble with costs one cannot afford to pay. If you can't afford to lose your health or your home, don't risk it. Consider that scientific studies have proven that humans make terribly poor judgments when it comes to accepting a low risk of a disastrous event. Using Expectancy Value Theorem would show a decision to get foam is a bad one, but people choose the foam because they think a low risk means they have controlled the risk. They have not - the risk is the risk, period - full stop. The cost of the risk is not worth from a pure analysis standpoint. Arguing its the peoples right to make a choice is like arguing that playing Russian roulette is a good choice if you really enjoy the "game". The reality is that high odds in your favor do not necessarily make a gamble a worthy choice. *The cost of failure must be considered independently of the reward of success**. If your foam installation has only a in 1/30 chance of affecting your health and ruining your homes livability, then for a $300,000 home, the choice to install foam is basically a decision that will average you a $10,000 cost *AND 1/30 of the remaining healthy years of your life! Those are awful costs for a "cost-saving" choice! If your home is worth $900,000, the effective dollar cost goes up to $30,000, plus you are still forfeiting 1/30 of your healthy years of your life! Think about that! That is just for the excellent odds of 1/30. With a low-cost contractor, that chance might increase to 1/5 or more!
    1