Violence Costs in monetary terms

Since money talks with policy makers, this research ought to encourage investment in 'conflict resolution' within society, which would start to change culture, I hope, for wider conflict. Apparently the costs of violence in the USA rival the costs of hurricane Katrina.
"researchers found that most of the costs of violence stem from males and young adults. Sixty-eight percent of the costs from assaults and 63 percent of the costs from self-inflicted injuries were in males aged 15 to 44.
“The most burdensome category is among young males who are victims of assaults with firearms,” Corso said. “So if you want to prevent those costs from occurring, you need to focus on prevention in that particular population.”
Other findings from the study include:
* Most of the $70 billion in costs associated with violence were from lost productivity ($64.4 billion), with the remaining $5.6 billion spent on medical care.
* Americans suffer 2.2 million medically treated injuries due to interpersonal violence annually, at a cost of $37 billion ($33 billion in productivity losses, $4 billion in medical treatment)."
ScienceDaily: Violence Costs Nation $70 Billion Annually, Study Finds:

Letters to The Daily Telegraph on ID cards

Via the No2ID website came this link toLetters to The Daily Telegraph. Among them (and they are worth reading) is this one that probably speaks for an increasing number of people.
"I am disgusted at the proposal to spend £6 billion and more on this project.
This Government threw away £1 billion on that stupid Millennium Dome, is ploughing untold millions into the Olympic Games, and millions daily into the Iraq war - while hospices and air ambulances in this country get a pittance and depend on kindly individuals going around rattling collecting tins.
Air ambulances do life-saving work and hospices give care and love to those with life-limiting conditions. Why do we let our representatives fritter our money away and not help those who need it?" (Emphasis mine -'nuff sed)

Projected cost of ID cards rises

I'm trying to resist the urge to say 'I told you so'. I wish I could feel smug but I'm too busy worrying when someone in government is going to pull the plug on this white elephant project that we don't really want and probably can't be done without bankrupting the nation and turning us into drones. "The official estimated cost of the controversial national identity card scheme has soared in the last six months by an extra �840m to a total of �5.75bn, according to new Home Office figures published today.
The latest six-monthly estimate makes clear that this is unlikely to be the final figure as the �5.75bn excludes the costs to other government departments using ID cards to verify identities, such as GPs registering new patients."

Projected cost of ID cards rises by �400m | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics: