If you pay even the remotest attention to the news, you’ll that this past week there was a case where a family watched as their house burned to the ground. What was unusual about it was that the firefighters on the scene also stood by and watched along with them. The reason for this was because the family didn’t pay their monthly subscription fee. Apparently, the woman who lived there called 911 and when the operator said she couldn’t dispatch firefighters to her house, the woman said she’d pay whatever she wanted. And like a good bureaucrat, this 911 operator said we can’t do that.
Now liberals and other assorted Statists have claimed that this proves why a free market system doesn’t work for all cases. Any sensible person, however, could easily see that this is not the case because a private company would have worked out some kind of deal with the couple, like setting a flat charge for services rendered and a payment plan. This is what usually happens with private doctors and dentists for people who do not have insurance. At least, that is what has been happening, but with the Obamacare bill being passed, I doubt that will be the case in the future.
Still, I’m not really interested in writing an article about all that stuff now since many others have already done so, from the lowliest blogger to the most prominent columnist. What I find this story illustrates is a great example of the local government acting like a mafia-type operation more than anything else.
Traditionally, the mafia has operated in a manner where they force locals to do business with them. Usually it is flat out extortion, like asking for protection money. But you’re really only paying them to not break your stuff and your bones. The case could not be similar here. The firefighters and other local government goons in this case were showing everyone else what happens when you don’t pay your dues.
In other words, these thugs were only interested in making an example of this poor couple for all the rest of the community to see. I’ll bet that a lot of people who lived in that community and didn’t pay dues regularly have started paying now. And $75 a month is not cheap. I’ll bet those rural folks pay that amount to heat their homes every month.
The problem I have with these so-called government services is that they are inflexible and unable to adapt to modern shifts in technology and culture. We are still maintaining many archaic rules that have no relevance to this day and age all because government likes to keep all its laws and rules and regulations in place. Indeed, it is easier to pass 100 common sense laws than to repeal one bad one.
And what these local government thugs? Well, if you confronted any of them I’ll bet they’d tell you the same thing, “I was just doing my job.” In other words, they are no different than the thugs who kept the Jews in concentration camps, the communist agents who spied on their own citizens in order to get dissidents arrested in the Eastern block, and the police officers who issue out traffic tickets and have no idea that their really just professional tax collectors with guns.
Even the mayor of the locality next to this community where the firefighter service resides said that these people didn’t pay their dues. Simply put, you will obey the state’s rules or we won’t help you. This is nothing more than a case of government extortion at its finest.
And what about this couple? Well, I don’t have much hope for them. Their insurance company will probably not cover the damages since they started the first to begin with and because they didn’t pay their dues. Insurance companies are always in favor of state-run services because they can still charge a hefty fee to their customers and defer costs to the taxpayer. These people have been made an example for an entire nation: pay your dues to the government or face our consequences. And their consequences are usually void of common sense and moral guidance. You have been warned.