re: #393 Fozzie Bear

Can you explain where you get the idea that for-profit companies are inherently more efficient? What gives you so much faith that private industry can do better, for profit, that which the government can do?

Well, your link in 307 mentions “civil servants”, which to me is a public employee, not a private one:
“All citizens should be confident that their civil servants are providing accurate reports and abiding by laws meant to protect the environment,” said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The prosecution in this case demonstrates the coordinated effort of federal, state and local officials to investigate and prosecute those violating the nation’s environmental laws.”

“Accurate information about a community’s water quality is essential to protect the public health and the environment,” said Randy Ashe, Special Agent-in-Charge of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in Chicago. “Those who submit false reports or bogus data undermine those efforts and they will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted.”

At any rate, I worked for state government.

There are things that ONLY a government agency can do and do well.
And there are things that ONLY a private entity can do, and do well.

Finding that balance when we’re talking about services available to the public is sometimes a difficult one.

Firefighting - I can’t believe that the firefighters in the story mentioned in this post are not public employees. A fire at one house could easily spread to another one in the neighborhood; and firefighters need to be fighting whatever fires they come across. As we see in that example, a pay-for-service firefighting plan doesn’t work. The government there should be providing that service; paid for through taxes or whatever.