A BIZTONSÁG ÉRTÉKE ÉS ÁRA
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Copyright (c) 2018 Faculty of Economics and Business of John von Neumann University
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Abstract
This paper highlights the philosophical and sociological aspects of safety and the economic aspects of security. Although catastrophic potential inherent in (post-)modern risks is not the main cause of the rise of security debates nowadays, these have only gone viral as universal societal problems in the late 20th and the early 21st centuries. Actually, political discourse has always operated with the safety concept from the Roman rhetors to modern state leadership, often using it for manipulative purposes. Security-focused policy campaigns target the ancient, visceral fear of deaths like magic, rites, and religions providing false promises to satisfy our desire for safety. However, this desire shares the utopian character with such notions like freedom, equality or justice: all of them are unattainable. No government or institution can guarantee our safety but our security. While safety is a public or private good which is not for sale as it only has an ideal value, security is a common ware which has its price. Security is the economic aspect of safety. It is a commonplace that safety is costly, but lack of safety could be even more costly. Measuring costs of lacking safety and willingness-to-pay for security measures are crucial for the economic aspects of safety.