“The Premise, The Premise, The Premise Is On Fire…”
By Mitch Berg
The other day, I hired a plumber. When he got to he door, a couple of Code Pink harpies were waiting for him.
That was weird.
Private contractors aren’t only in Iraq. They’re on the scene wherever public resources are deemed not sufficient to serve the needs of the wealthy.
The injustice inherent in the system is everywhere.
People whose plumbing needs fixing but have no money do it themselves. If they have money, hiring a plumber is an option.
Some people go to accountants, or to H’nR Block, and spend their “wealth” to serve their need to get their taxes done. Others, whose resources are deemed not sufficient, use TurboTax.
Companies that are wealthy enough to be able to think about things like “usability” hire me – a contractor (through most of my career) who doesn’t serve the needs of poor, struggling companies.
A relative and career forest fire fighter confirms that insurance company crews have been showing up to foam the roofs of multi-million-dollar houses in places like Big Sur. In California, public agencies trying to manage fire on a broader scale have already run through half their budgets before reaching the main fire season, which starts in August.
To some of us, that sounds like “the wealthy are taking the load off of the public agencies, allowing them to spend their resources on areas that need the help”. It’s downright civic-minded…
…or so it seems to me, a simple conservative.
I guess it’d be more communitarian if they all just let their homes burn down…
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:32 am
Hmm … a fire season every year … seems like this is more of a “neglect of forest management” problem, than a “help the poor who can’t afford contractors” problem.
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:36 am
The insurance companies are paying for the private crews to protect the houses they insure. So far, so good. If they avoid having to pay out losses, that saves them — and their policyholders — a bit of money.
Looked at in purely financial terms, that’s a rational response, and I wasn’t criticizing them for trying to reduce their risk. I was pointing out what happens to public services when they don’t have enough money to get the job done.
But the wealthy are not taking the load off public agencies.
Unlike your plumbing problem, Mitch, wildfire IS a community issue, and having individuals or crews running around in an uncoordinated fashion can put others at greater risk. Wild fire does not behave on a house-by-house basis.
Let’s illustrate. Up one canyon, there are 50 homes, covered by five different insurance companies. Two companies send in their own trucks to save a total of five high-value houses, while residents flee and public firefighters try to get to the scene on the same two-lane mountain road. A insurance company crew gets beaten back because the area around them is served by different companies who didn’t send in crews…
When viewed in splendid isolation, there’s nothing wrong with the private contractor response. And even in the broader context, it’s a natural human response to want to save one’s house.
But this is how we fought fires before 1900, and after Chicago and other great fires, rich and poor alike finally decided it was a bad system.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:42 am
Troy, many of these western fires do not involve what you’d recognize as forests. Believe me, flaming grass and scrub land can burn down a collection of houses or a bridge just as fast as tall timber. I saw both happen last time I was back in Colorado.
One thing my post did not mention was what this 30-year fire manager told me. The fire situation is getting worse out west, and whether you want to blame sunspots, man or natural weather cycles, fire season is going to cost more money than it did in the past, regardless of who pays the bills.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:52 am
Best to just raise taxes now then.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 am
What charlie is really complaining about is that people are too shortshighted to see the benefit in sending more of their money (via taxes) to the public sector.
Personally, the libertarian in me says, fine, be stupid. Don’t put enough into your fire department, have houses burn down and watch what it does to your insurance rates. You have the right and freedom to be stupid in this country. If you live in one of those areas that’s decided to skimp on protection, then what these folks is doing is right.
The essential issue is freedom, though. Obviously the people of these areas disagree with charlie on the value and best method of controlling these fires. Yet charlie, who doesn’t live there in their circumstances, feels quite free to mandate how they should live their lives in accordance to his particular ethos, ignoring the will of the people who actually live there. And yet the Left loves to be proclaimed Pro-Choice…
As to the problem out West, you might note that much of the problem is actually development. The population is growing and we’re putting tons of homes in bad places like dry canyons. If the wildfire situation weren’t impacting more folks I’d be shocked — those wildfires have been going on for years, but generally nobody was impacted before so nobody cared much. I know down in SoCal when I was there last you could almost watch in real time as the development ring pushed farther into the high desert with all the attendant fire risk.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
I believe you, charlieq, but I think you could manage grass and scrub land as well. In fact, it might be easier: there are fewer grass- and scrub-huggers to get in the way. 😉
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Nerdbert,
Actually I do live out there part time and I do have a house that could someday find itself in a similar situation. I’m a descendant of homesteaders and ranchers, and far from wanting to mandate others’ behavior, I’m making observations about the consequences of the choices made.
The west has been settled to the level of development it has been because of public water projects, the homestead act, private use of public lands for grazing, logging, mining, etc. Some people out there know that and others think they got there totally on their rugged individualism.
Troy,
You’re right. And there are a lot of guys on 4-wheelers who’d love to get started….