re: #53 Charles

It needs to pointed out that this kind of tragic absurdity is the inevitable consequence of treating essential government services (such as firefighting) as if they were private enterprises.

When you require people to pay a subscription fee to protect their homes against fire, you’re creating a situation in which this kind of sickening outcome is unavoidable. How could the system possibly be enforced if the firefighters went ahead and extinguished fires in homes owned by people who hadn’t paid up?

This is a very bad road to travel, and it has consequences for society that go far beyond one house burning down.

Where I live - the city provides fire protection service within city limits.
I live outside the city limits and my fire protection is provided by a “fire protection district”, which requires that I pay an annual fee. It’s not much, about $50 a year or so. But I have no clue what would happen if someone didn’t pay the fee - I have to assume some folks fail to pay it, but I’ve never heard of any fire going unfought.