1271: What's Your Price?

[mcbane89]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

Although your conclusion concides with mine, you're wrong on both things you guaranteed happened. First, the family was burning trash near their house, which got out of control. They couldn't put it out with their hoses, so they called 911. Since they didn't pay the service fee, they were told the firemen would not be coming to the rescue. A couple of hours later, and since they were still unable to put the fire out by themselves, it spread to their trailer home.

Once the fire grew large enough to spread to their neighbor's farm, he called 911 and the firemen responded to the call, since he paid the fee. Once they took care of their customer and made sure the fire wouldn't be back on the property, they went back to the city they're supposed to be covering.

I see this is going to be one of those issues where people make up a story about firefighters and a burning building, then draw conclusions based on their made-up stories. There's nothing more to say on this matter, you kids can have it all to yourselves.

Yeah, I'll have to mea culpa to not looking at the story before writing because the thought is just so far out of the realm of what's right, I couldn't believe it. I'll be interested to see what the City Manager has to say about it, as this, if it is exactly as reported, is a huge debacle. I guess I have to ask the question, because most other forms of services with a delinquent payment, at least in California, will let you pay as need be and then provide the service, why the customer offering to pay at the time (and add a service fee on top if need be) wasn't sufficient? Sure, you'd still look like assholes, but it wouldn't be this huge thing where you just got a firefighter assaulted.


And this isn't a question for D Warrior, just for the rest of the KATG community, is there a D Warrior post where he hasn't managed to say something douchey? It's uncanny.

[DWarrior]

Originally Posted by mcbane89

And this isn't a question for D Warrior, just for the rest of the KATG community, is there a D Warrior post where he hasn't managed to say something douchey? It's uncanny.

pssst.

[Badger]

The actions of those firefighters foreshadow a grim, dog-eat-dog dystopia. Deregulated free market economic policies have doomed us all (well, all you poor people anyway).

On the plus side, Iacono is an awesome guest. Love him on the show and on Comical Radio. Cracking news he's getting his own show. He might actually get to finish a story without Danny cutting him off.

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

Whose fault was that?

Hey man, I expressly avoided making it political, but if you want to go that way....Republicans are running that county and it's conservatives who raise the biggest ruckus over any tax increase, even when it comes to basic services like fire and police. If they raised the property taxes by thirteen cents no one would even notice, so there is absolutely no excuse for this 2008 plan to not have been implemented by now. It would relieve South Fulton of having to cover an entire county....but they would also lose a lot of revenue, so I have to wonder if that's really the crux of the situation here. Similar to paying insurance premiums every year, most people don't ever have to ask the insurer to pay out, and the insurance companies make out like bandits.

Also, wildfire spreads just as nicely in rural areas as it does in urban areas, and at some point an out of control fire starts hitting other houses, no matter how spread apart they are. The social good outweighs the lack of a subscription fee, and hitting non-payers with huge fines if they do need fire service will stop other people from deciding not to pay the $75. It works in other communities, and it would work here.

But all of this is moot if the motherfuckers would get the county sorted out with fire service. They've had a feasible plan for the past two years and they've done nothing to implement it.

[ryanknapper]

Jesus fucking Christ, doesn't anyone actually read anything about this story, or is it easier to make shit up and argue imaginary points?

[Blitzgal]

The idea that humans today are more callous, crueler, or desensitized to violence than we used to be is such BS. The ancient Romans used sit back at their local colosseum and watch public executions. Wild animals were brought up from Africa to fight people. So in real life they're watching human beings get ripped to shreds by tigers and lions. But today we're so much crueler than we used to be? No.

Humans are bloodthirsty motherfuckers. We always have been, we always will be. I'm not saying that's a good thing -- it's just a matter of fact. Watching people bash into each other on the football field or violence in a video game is so much tamer than bringing the kiddies and a picnic lunch down to the town square to watch that day's public execution (usually by hanging).

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by ryanknapper

Jesus fucking Christ, doesn't anyone actually read anything about this story, or is it easier to make shit up and argue imaginary points?

I don't know who you're referring to, but here is the budget proposal from Obion County back in 2008. They HAVE had a feasible plan that could very easily have been implemented to provide fire service for the entire county, making the entire issue of a subscription fee to South Fulton completely moot.

http://troy.troytn.com/Obion%20Count...Commission.pdf

Also, the first plan for county wide fire protection was drafted in 1987, and then nothing happened with it for 23 years because the assholes kept arguing about how to fund it. Meanwhile a few small towns were being asked to cover the entire county. There is NO EXCUSE for this bullshit and trying to blame the Cranicks for this situation is completely wrong-headed. This shit was decades in the making.

http://www.firefighternation.com/for...cil-plans-vote

[Medium Brumski]

I really wish one of the firefighters had taken him up on his "I'll pay anything"

Say, about 15k

[Blitzgal]

I came back to apologize, because somebody with better math skills than me explained this .13% increase thing in this thread. It means that for every $100K your house is worth you'd pay $113 more dollars. That helps me understand why the county has dragged its feet on fire protection for the past 23 years. The voters in Obion County obviously opted to make South Fulton bear the brunt of fire protection for a measly $75 annually because they don't feel like paying for their own fire service. It's fucked up, but the county residents made this bed. It's also still a good argument for why some basic services HAVE to be provided with no ability to "opt out." If I pay my fee I don't want to worry that my asshole neighbor didn't and now my house is at risk because he just doesn't feel like it. Take it out of my taxes and cover me.

Also somebody in that linked thread claims that the Cranicks already had one fire, in their chimney. The fire department put it out then even though they hadn't paid the subscription fee. And this guy STILL decided not to pay it again! But the poster doesn't cite their source so I don't know if it's true.

[Snarky]

Originally Posted by Ryan_1523

Probably wouldn't have been as big a deal if they actually brought the marshmallows, to be fair.. Maybe that's the real issue here.

If the homeowner had $75 worth of marshmallows, do you think the firefighers would have been willing to bargain? Give us the mallows, and we'll put your house out.