Comments on: Privatized Hell Revisited

By: Marq Goldberg

Marq Goldberg — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:45:13 +0000

The answer is obvious. What we need to do is promote privatized fire protection for conservative regions (which are primarily rural and, to a lesser degree, suburban) and collective or, as conservatives like to call it, “socialized” fire protection for liberal regions (which are primarily urban). Its not the 1% who are wealthy who are the problem. Its the vast majority of conservatives who are just too stupid to see they are being played. Let them vote themselves out. Then let them burn themselves up. Maybe they’ll actually learn something for once. Homelessness may even teach them compassion.

By: Dave Lind

Dave Lind — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:51:08 +0000

HR said:

This article should cause people who think Republo-Libertarians like Ron Paul will be their salvation to think again

Where do you get the idea that Ron Paul is against local fire departments? Seriously. You're so desperate to demonize him, why not try the "he's an Islamofascist sympathizer" technique. At least you'd have scant evidence upon which you might base your reality-inversion. Ernest Partridge said:

Two hundred and seventy-one years of uncontested validation of this simple truth does not faze the libertarians and the regressives (self-described “conservatives”).

Your scholarship leaves much to be desired. Please provide for us examples of these thus far fantastic libertarians and conservatives upon whom you pin your [Marxist? Communist? Socialist? Maoist? Fascist? Big-Brotherist?] disdain.

By: Tony Spors

Tony Spors — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:52:46 +0000

Everything, including their very own private fire-fighting brigades for the super-rich; nothing left over for anyone else. This is George W. Bush’s vision of America.

By: Ragnar_Rahl

Ragnar_Rahl — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:06:20 +0000

You seem not to realize that with a decent court system, in a fully capitalist society, private fire departments would have an incentive to not worry over who was authorized to put out the fire, as anytime someone who actually paid them lost a house, they would be sued for the value of the house.

Nor would a government fire department (which I’m not inherently opposed to if managed properly without taxation) necessarily be stuck with an “either taxes or free rider problem” issue. The trick is to get the funding in surplus from another service the government provides, one that IS reducible to individual demands. Such as what Ayn Rand proposed, the funding of government by charging a percentage of the money exchanged in contracts in order to make the contract legally enforceable. Which by the way, leads to most expenses of government being borne by the rich, so that should make ya’ll happy with your talk of proletarians and such :D

By: AJ Nasreddin

AJ Nasreddin — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:55:33 +0000

The poor will become poorer and more miserable – but I don’t imagine taxes will be cut.

By: HR

HR — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:33:21 +0000

This article should cause people who think Republo-Libertarians like Ron Paul will be their salvation to think again … and do a little research into what Republicans and Libertarians really have on their minds: the PRIVATIZATION OF EVERYTHING, which will result the creation of a “FEUDAL STATES OF AMERICA”, a situation even worse than what existed in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, one where we commoners exist only to serve them. And here I thought social darwinism was dead …

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:14:52 +0000

Private fire services, operated by insurance compies, were the norm in the US until well into the 19th century. They were replaced by the present minicipal or county fire services precisely for the reasons Mr Partridge sets out.