I'm sure the anti-reform nuts won't actually get the joke...

[acroyear]

Facebook | 1 Million Strong Against our SOCIALIST Fire Departments:

Name:
1 Million Strong Against our SOCIALIST Fire Departments
Type:
Organizations - Community Organizations
Description:
For too long now, fire departments across the United States have been SOCIALIST organizations, resulting in TAXES on the American people.

FACT: Most Americans never use the socialized services of the fire department. The Obama administration has been very clear about keeping the status quo when it comes to taxpayer-funded fire departments.

It is time to open the fire department up to private industry. We have the best fire departments in the world in the US, but that doesn't mean that anyone (even non-US citizens) should be able to dial up and have fires put out, etc. There are private companies (Halliburtion, Etc.) who could step in tomorrow and take over every fire department in America and charge the consumer directly.

This is AMERICA. NO FREE FIRE SAFETY.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in asbestos and carrying a fire hose."

Please tell everyone you know about this group!

Comments

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

My dad was talking to be at one point about why there are three fire departments in downtown Frederick: Apparently each of them was owned by different insurance companies and each company only served those who had a sign on their house. Imagine if you had to pick the one that was on the other side of town from your house.

Course, many of these "socialist" fire departments are volunteer. We can't have that when there is money to be made...

[uncle-possum.livejournal.com]

This system was common in Britain and in the American colonies. You could buy a large medallion to put on the front of your house, so if it caught fire, the volunteer companies would know that they would get paid by the insurance company if they put out the fire. And, as in improvement in service, some insurance companies operated their own professional fire departments who would come to the address and put out the fire, if you had the medallion.

There's a great (and fairly realistic) scene early in "Gangs of New York" showing a variant of the system, where the house on fire burns down while two fire companies fight over who gets to put out the fire.

But, there is a long positive tradition of volunteer fire companies as well, and that continues. Aren't most current ones subsidized (equipment, firehouse, training facilities) by taxes, though?

I'm waiting to here this proposal taken seriously on talk radio, and maybe Fox cable news.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

This I think is one of those resource things. When people (and water) are plentiful, then privatization of such "common good" resources can happen (and because such people are "cheap", pay can drop down to "volunteer" levels).

this was true of Britain in the industrial revolution, and remained true of the north-east u.s..

by contrast, out west people were of short supply, and water was of short supply, and one fire would destroy the whole town in a heartbeat (given the dry woods they had to use), so pooled resources, paid companies, taxed support all became major requirements for the town's safety. "socialism" as a necessity.

like so many other parts of the conflicts in this country, each side has been asking for the federal government to embrace their requirements at the expense of the other's absolute essential minimum needs.