“Which side of the fire line are you on? - Chicago Tribune (blog)”

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Which side of the fire line are you on? - Chicago Tribune (blog) Posted: 08 Oct 2010 08:53 AM PDT The question is so simple, it sounds hypothetical: Some rural counties don't levy a tax to support a fire department, but instead residents and business owners must pay an optional fire-protection service fee. If a house owned by a family that has not paid the fee catches fire, should firefighters respond anyway? But the story behind it is real: On Sept. 29 in unincorporated Obion County, Tenn., a trash fire in two barrels ignited the home of Gene Cranick, Emergency officials from nearby South Fulton stubbornly refused to send help because Cranick hadn't paid his $75 annual fire-protection fee, and the home was eventually leveled by the slow-moving blaze. "I thought they'd come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75," Gene Cranick told reporters. The liberal response to this tale as it's spread through the talk-radio and cable-chat worlds has generally been one of sympathy and horror. To paraphrase: What sort of pitiless, indecent world have we created in which we'd stand by and watch a family's worldly possessions (plus three dogs and one cat) destroyed because they hadn't paid $75? Are we not, in a crisis, responsible for one another? The general conservative/libertarian response, again to paraphrase: Freeloaders like the Cranicks have and will always exploit the sympathies and common decency of others to avoid doing or giving their fair share. Insulating them from the consequences of their actions encourages asocial irresponsibility. I see the conservative/libertarian point. If Cranick were right, that the South Fulton fire department would "come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75," then only suckers would pay what amounts to an annual insurance fee that spreads the risk and the cost among county residents. The system would break down. And it's an easier point to embrace here since Cranick's grandson and not an arsonist started the fire, there were no people trapped inside the house with the pets, and no immediately neighboring house to be ignited by flying embers (firefighters did step in when the blaze threatened to spread to an adjacent field where the property owner had paid the fee). That doesn't mean it was a good idea for Obion County to privatize fire protection. In fact, given the potential for real human tragedy as well as the spread of destruction, fire protection is exactly the sort of government service that should be (loaded word alert) socialized. Together, we should pool our resources to guarantee that the unluckiest or most hapless among us will receive a quick, professional and thorough response to a disaster that, if unchecked, could spread its ruin to others. Since it violates our collective sense of decency to stand by while others suffer and offer moral judgments and lessons in free-market virtues, single-payer is clearly the way to go. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

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