Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Conservative Government in Action
We wouldn't seriously think of letting essential services like police and fire protection be handled by the market would we? If government has any purpose we can all agree on, it's something like that, right? I mean, privatizing the Fire Department, would be some kind of stupid. And yet...
A local neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee, home burned to the ground.

The homeowner, Gene Cranick, said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn’t do anything to stop his house from burning. 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.
Come on, people. Have fee for service arrangements for your county recycling program, maybe. But fire? How about we just use taxes for that?

3 comments:

stevie t said...

Maybe the mob should run the fire dept. Then they'd make sure people paid. And if someone didn't pay, then the local hospitals would be assured some business.

Doug said...

This is actually the business opportunity they've been waiting for. You can bet everybody who's been holding out has already been sure they're paid up by now.

When they think about it, I bet they'd be happy to consider $75 cheap for such protection. You could double the fee to $150, maybe even $200, and everybody will continue to pay.

Don said...

Stevie T and Doug - funny we were thinking the same things. I posted this morning about Tony Soprano being the proper mayor here, and how we can be sure everyone's paid up now.