User:Simsilikesims/Prevention

Prevention means to stay away from something, or avoid something before it happens. There are several types of prevention: Preventive medicine, Hazard prevention, Risk prevention, Crime prevention, Pollution prevention, Preventive maintenance, Goal prevention, and Thinking prevention. Some people say it is more fun to wait and deal with things after they happen (prevention prevention), but in case you are not one of those people, I will now proceed to discuss each of these.

Preventive Medicine

This is usually in the form of advice from your doctor to quit smoking, wear seat belts, lose some weight, get more exercise, and eat healthier, or from your dentist to floss daily and brush all your teeth several times daily and use mouthwash. This is because your doctor or dentist gets paid by an organization (such as insurance agency or HMO) that does not benefit from higher medical bills from things like Obesity, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Gingivitis, Lost Teeth, or Cancer. The insurance companies want to make sure that they can keep as much of the patients money as possible, instead of paying it to the doctors for expensive services, or losing patients to health conditions. Healthy patients pay more in insurance premiums in the long run, since sick patients have shorter lifespans in general. Therefore, the longer you live, the more you will pay in health insurance. Health insurance companies even reward you for living a long healthy life by raising your premiums. But they don't like to pay the doctors for services rendered, so they pay the doctors to nag you about your health every so often instead. Some doctors go so far as to prescribe additional vitamins or nutritional supplements that turn out to be little more than an additional expense for their patients, since the patients buy them but don't bother to take them.

Hazard prevention

Obviously designed by a hazard prevention specialist.

The best way to prevent a hazard is to think of how a hazard might occur first. Thus, hazard prevention specialists tend to be worrywarts who are paranoid about the slightest possibility of a hazard. After all, they get paid to worry. Hazard prevention specialists may also erroneously think that it is possible to prevent all hazards before they happen. Those who do not hold this belief are known as disaster mitigation specialists. It is their job to prevent disasters, or protect personnel responding to disasters.

The development of safety equipment and safety clothing falls under this category, as does the category of warning labels and signs. This explains why some warning labels and signs are so painstakingly obvious, since some people apparently lack the common sense that would prevent certain everyday hazards. Unfortunately, these same people are not known for having the common sense to pay attention to warning labels and signs.

Risk prevention

The best way to prevent risks is not to take them in the first place. Therefore, you should not leave your house, because there is a risk that someone could break in while you were gone, or you might find yourself in a bank while it was being robbed. Don't stay at home either, there might be an infestation of critters inside, or you might experience an earthquake, or a flood might carry away your home if you're near a river, or a tornado or hurricane might ruin your house, or a nuclear war might contaminate your home with radiation. So build a secure bunker, make sure it is radiation proof, flood proof and fire proof, stock it with food and toiletries, and hide in the bunker until doomsday is over. Oh, and back-up your hard drive.

Crime prevention

Most logical people want to prevent crime, unless they are criminals. To prevent crime, it is useful to get inside a criminal's head, and try not to get trapped in there. Criminals have enough other nasty beasts roaming inside their head, and they don't need one more entity to deal with. There are three steps to every crime: Motive, Means, and Opportunity. Motivate would be criminals by having lots of loot around for them to steal, in plain sight. Don't mark any of your valuables with identifying marks that might tip off the police that they were stolen and belong to you, later. Don't mark your windows or yard with crime prevention signs, since the absence of an alarm system is a great motivator in some neighborhoods. Give them the means by say, leaving ladders out in your yard so that they can access the open second story window. Don't bother to have any visible cameras, since these are known to deter thieves. Have lots of bushes obscuring the view of your house from the neighbors so the neighbors don't notice the crooks and notify the police. Give them the opportunity by leaving your alarm turned off, and being out of the house with the door unlocked or garage door open. Don't use locked safes, since they only make it harder for you to access your valuables, and valuables are meant to be shared with criminals, who have more use for them than you do.

Pollution prevention

Pollution can come from several sources, whether it be air pollution, litter, or simply adding garbage to landfills. The simplest way to prevent pollution is never to throw anything out. That's right, simply keep everything, including straws, stir sticks, napkins, paper towels, old rags, food waste, cans, bottles, old clothes, and so on. Or, you could simply recycle everything, including aluminum foil and waxed paper. Never mind the instructions on your recycle bin about what can and can't be recycled, recycle everything! Don't go anywhere, this prevents carbon emissions from driving. Even the buses have plenty of exhaust, and the trains take electricity. Don't use any electricity, this will reduce your carbon emissions. Use a horse to go places instead, carry all the manure home in a box, and put all the horse manure in the compost heap. Then recycle the box. Always use a cloth bag for your groceries, even when you have forgotten and left the cloth bag at home. Don't eat any meat, because animals produce gas, and that pollutes the environment.

Preventive maintenance

This refers to maintenance that is done to prevent a machine (such as a car) or a building from breaking down or deteriorating. In order to prevent maintenance, simply do not own any machines or facilities, and then you will not have to maintain them. Or, alternatively, replace your machines or facilities as they wear out or fail, as they inevitably will. Just be sure to have the phone number of a good towing company on hand, and an emergency phone nearby, should you choose to use this method with your car. Another way to prevent maintenance is to surround the machine or facility in an impermeable plexi-glass bubble, in a clean, dry environment. You might not be able to use the machine or facility in the meantime, but you will not have to maintain it - the bubble is your one-step maintenance!

Goal prevention

Usually, but not always, this refers to games where there is a goal, such as football or soccer, or even basketball. In these games, it is known as "Defense". The defense team attempts through physical action to keep the other team from making the goal and scoring against them. Other times, goal prevention can be accomplished by something known as procrastination. Procrastination has prevented many a personal goal or even a group goal from being accomplished. But I'll add more to this section on the subject later.

Thinking prevention

Thinking prevention means to prevent a thought from happening before it happens. This is more difficult than it sounds because thoughts are the fastest thing in the universe. Thoughts can travel forward and backward in time, because they are faster than the speed of light. A warning may serve as a means of prevention, but when there is no warning, or when the warning is unclear, prevention is difficult. Also, THE GAME. See what I mean? To prevent thinking, it is useful to prevent discussion. This is why corporations tend to limit discussion within their offices, in order to exercise thought control, also known as Public Relations. Since thinking may result in action, preventing discussion prevents action. Of course, sometimes action may occur without thinking occurring first, with less than desirable results. Thus, thinking prevention may not always be advised.