Firefighters Watch House Burn To The Ground

Liberalism is a very, very complicated philosophy.  For example, a rural Tennessee government is getting some heat from the left on this:

Each year, Obion County residents must pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton.  But the Cranicks did not pay.

The mayor said if homeowners don't pay, they're out of luck.

This fire went on for hours because garden hoses just wouldn't put it out. It wasn't until that fire spread to a neighbor's property, that anyone would respond.

Turns out, the neighbor had paid the fee.

"I thought they'd come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75, but I was wrong," said Gene Cranick.

Gotta love that last line.  Don't you just love how he assumes almost no responsibility for the situation? I'm sure that as he gets media attention, he'll quickly decide to assert that he couldn't afford the $75, but it looks to me like he thought he could just ride for free. If that's the case, I don't feel nearly as bad as the liberals at ThinkProgress do.

Remember though - these are the same type of people who now believe that anybody who doesn't carry health insurance deserves to be turned away from hospitals if they're not here illegally. And that people who dare to complain about entitlements should be banned from receiving benefits. Not exempted from paying into their Ponzi plans, though, just from collecting money from their system.

Which is it, liberals?  Should people pay for the resources they use, or not?

Here's an interesting twist that almost all the lefty bloggers will ignore: According to a a blog called Leftword, "...in the county commission’s latest report on its fire services, which outlines which parts of the municipal area will receive fire services only through subscriptions, the commissioners and fire service officials brag that the county is “very progressive.” Heh. I guess that takes us right back to the whole "if you don't buy Obamacare insurance, you deserve to die!" mindset, doesn't it?

But I have to admit that while my initial instinct was, as always, to snicker cynically, I really don't like the county's policy.  For one thing, this guy pays property taxes, and the value of that property just went down dramatically. I know, I know, you libertarians don't like property taxes, but that's a different topic. This topic is the cost to the county:  reassessing the property and the subsequent loss of tax revenue to the county, which we can safely assume will easily surpass $75, is going to equate to a net loss to the county coffers.

And here's another point that will hopefully bring my libertarian readers back around: As a libertarian-leaning conservative, I'd prefer to depend on a volunteer fire department. (Are we good now?) But in communities that decide to run a paid subscription venture, the odds are pretty good that somebody will, at some point, screw up the records concerning who paid and who didn't. Imagine calling 911, and explaining that their records are wrong, but your "Verified Paid"  window sticker is now a little molten pool on a smoldering window sill.

Plus, there's the human factor. Truth be told, what with me being me and all, this policy scares me because I can sadly see myself being that guy whose house is on fire. Case in point - my trash company called me Friday to tell me that my payment was late and therefore my collection would stop next week if I didn't give them some cash pronto.  Now, I'd love to tell you that the post office lost the quarterly bill to reinforce my "government isn't efficient" point from above, but the truth is that I stuck it in my checkbook and promptly forgot about it. But the consequences aren't as dire. If I miss a garbage pick up, my neighbors might, as usual, smile sadly at my patheticness. But if I lived in Obion County, my house might burn down if I didn't remember to pay that bill?   

Of course, if my house did burn, there would undoubtedly be contingents, both libertarian and liberal, sneering and saying I deserved it. Even more frightening, my Dad would present a terribly uncomfortable stern expression for the rest of my life whenever the topic might come up. And while I would admittedly deserve every bit of the grief, I just don't think that it's actually important for the advancement of society to insist on letting somebody lose everything they own over $75.

So here's the solution.  Go ahead and charge the yearly fee to cover services in advance. If a home that isn't covered starts to burn,  let the fire department put it out and have the town put a lien on the house for the costs, plus a stiff penalty. That provides a viable conservative balance to the libertarian position. (Liberals, somebody has to pay. Live with it.)

But in the meantime, note that ThinkProgress has started a fundraiser, with a goal of raising $100,000 to help this family rebuild their home and....NAH! Just kidding!  It's one thing to yammer on about how government should take care of everybody, but seriously, what self-respecting progressive would suggest actually stepping up and assuming any level of personal responsibility? 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Laura]

Here in our burg, we depend on a completely volunteer fire department. I suspect that we're one of the largest towns (almost 7000) of our size to have no one on the payroll. Of course the city pays for the equipment and such, and those costs are, indeed, covered by our property taxes. While the purists among us (as you've noted) think that there should be total privatization of these services, I'm not so sure.

I've never missed a trash payment, though. We have a private trash collection service in our community--but it's given a monopoly on the service by the city (I think they renew the contract yearly)--and the collections are handled through the utilities department of the city. If I forget the trash payment, I've forgotten to pay the electric and water bills!

[Eric Parks]

"That provides a viable conservative balance to the libertarian position."

Could you explain to me why it's considered conservative rather than libertarian to put a lien on a home? Isn't that making a claim on a property of sorts?

And who was it that "laid down the law" concerning letting the house burn? Was it a business? No, it was the city and the Mayor if I read the article correctly. So, it was the local government that decided to let the house burn.

I have several policies on my property through private businesses: an A/C company and a termite company. If there are problems in either of those areas, they come and fix it pronto. If not, they'll still fix it pronto but charge me much more for not having coverage. I suspect that a private fire company would operate the same way because, if everyone gets POed at them, they could lose their business - unlike the Mayor and his city, who have a perpetual monopoly on services at the moment. To write that a private fire-fighting company wouldn't put out a fire due to a lapse in payment is pure conjecture, isn't it? So far the only example we have is one where the government wouldn't lift a hose.

And I don't think that libertarians have any problem with volunteerism and would embrace the least expensive solution so long as it didn't require government force.

[AngelaTC]

of course it is conjecture, but it isn't unfounded.

[Eric Parks]

"but it isn't unfounded."

You big tease, you.

I'm not trying to hang onto perfect libertarianism, mind you. Rather, extremely curious as to the feasibility of non-governmental solutions to typical governmental services. It's my inner Walter Block speaking. ;)

[AngelaTC]

There are reasons that fire departments eventually evolved into the public domain. Back in the 1800's, fire departments competed, and the customers would display medallions so the firefighters would know which service the building owner subscribed to. It wasn't uncommon for firefighters to arrive, see another crew's medallion displayed, and just watch the building burn down.

Other times, competing crews would race to fires, and hide the hydrants with big barrels from the crew that stood to get the insurance money.

Heck, Boss Tweed got his start as a firefighter.

[Mage]

This is so infuriating. They put too much value in money and that freaking policy over the safety and comfort of the unfortunate family. Really disappointing to know how their governing system works.

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[Eric Parks]

"It wasn't uncommon for firefighters to arrive, see another crew's medallion displayed, and just watch the building burn down."

I wonder where the assigned crews were? If you have a medallion in your home and the crew doesn't show up, could you sue them? Would "other crews" even leave their stations today with the technology we have?

"Other times, competing crews would race to fires, and hide the hydrants with big barrels from the crew that stood to get the insurance money."

If you hide a fire hydrant, shouldn't you be arrested for endangerment? Would hydrants be hard to find today with the technology we have?

As for Boss Tweed,would it have been better for him to have remained a low level firefighter than to have become a political swindler of the highest magnitude?

In a world of service privatization there would be problems - some of them major ones. In the instance of firefighting, you've shown some of them and I'm sure there were more. But should the solution be that we hand it over to the government? I wonder, if left in the private realm, what a hundred years of firefighting innovation would have wrought?

What I can say for certain is what happens when we hand everything over to the government: hundreds of millions of deaths in a hundred years, the destruction of wealth and middle classes, and a tax burden that grinds ever higher for those trying to survive.

Either we work toward private solutions and the relatively minor headaches inherent in that realm, or we move ever closer to a totalitarian government. And yes, I believe conservatives are moving us further down the communist path along with their liberal counterparts.