Why do people live in places like Oklahoma or Kansas when they know that tornadoes are always touching down is the rent cheaper out there?

Answer 1

This is is based on a rather faulty risk assessment. While tornadoes do occur in Oklahoma and Kansas more than anywhere else in the world, most people who live out there are never hit by one. Most of the time the weather there is quite nice. The region we know as Tornado Alley has plenty of good farmland as well, and is an important part of American agriculture.

Furthermore, no place comes without its disadvantages. We are more aware of tornadoes than many other threats because they kill and destroy in a rather spectacular fashion, which attracts media attention. If you look at the statistics, tornadoes are by no means the greatest danger you could live with. Tornadoes kill an average of about 60 people int he U.S. each year, and that number is steadily declining. This is out of a total of about 2.4 million deaths from all causes. More significant causes of death include icy roads (450 per year), murder (17,000 per year), and air pollution (200,000 per year).