Joined: 06 Jul 2003
Posts: 8212
Location: Central CA
| Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:01 pm Post subject: Geez, I hope this is a freaking joke. | |
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Not that I wouldn't put it past the fricking insurance industry... they've already got you by the short and curlies on health care... time to move on to the next big "privatization" bubble, right?
And if it's not a joke, lord help us. "I'm sorry Mrs X, we can't rescue your child or put out your fire. Your records show you had a fire in your fireplace back in 1994. That automatically qualifies as a "pre-existing condition". http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111256528714&ref=nf |
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Joined: 22 Dec 2007
Posts: 445
| Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:18 pm Post subject: | |
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Certainly there can be things like sprinkler systems but I highly doubt that a locality would outsource the fire department.
Long ago it was private in the UK and what would happen is the names would be on a plaque if they paid. Well the difference is it really didn't cost that much more to put out a house across the street or next to one that paid. |
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Joined: 06 Jul 2003
Posts: 8212
Location: Central CA
| Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:35 pm Post subject: | |
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The Fire Service in Scottsdale Arizona was outsourced... I believe to Wackenhut... over twenty years ago Since I retired I've last track of how it worked out... don't even know if the contract is still in force but the point is, this isn't anything new.
there were other jurisdictions doing the same thing off and on during the period. Again no real data as to the actual number of private fire departments in existence today. USAF Plant 42 in Palmdale CA... major aircraft construction and test facility... was contracted for fire, rescue and first responder services with a company called Nero and Associates back when I was going to fires down there in the 80s. A lot of other military bases and facilities were contracted out in the same manner. You combine a real movement such as this one at least pretends to be with the fact that many of the same insurance companies involved in the Great Cathouse Tuesday and Health Care Massacre also sell fire insurance and you DEFINITELY have the makings for another major catastrophe for the working classes in the form of for profit public safety. As with every other major case of privatization so far, service levels will go down... (property destroyed, lives lost, etc.) in order to pad the margin for the stockholders. And even if this particular "movement" is a fake, some day some little twerp sitting in a cubicle at some giant insurance company is going to come up with it. It's only a matter of time. |
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Joined: 26 Aug 2008
Posts: 269
| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:57 am Post subject: | |
| After reading it, it's a spoof on the morons railing against government getting into health care. | |
Joined: 22 Dec 2007
Posts: 445
| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 3:21 pm Post subject: | |
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Just wondering but what are the laws or regulations (you don't have to site exacts just stuff you recall) on carbon monoxide and smoke detectors?
I just ask because a number of years ago the state governments in the north east mandated carbon monoxide detectors. First it the law was you had to have one in the house...then another law passed where you had to have one if you sold your house...THEN they started to really sell. Trouble is some of this scared the crap out of people and they were putting them all over the place. The reason for this law is a number of years ago during the winter snow blocked some of the exhaust of a dryer and it ultimatly killed a kid. It's sad when it takes a tragedy to lead to people to only start to think about safety. Another hike in safety was due to the station night club fire. To make a long story short a band used pyrotechnics against a backdrop of sound muffling foam which was extreamly flammable. Not all possible exits were posted and many people died. Lawsuits flew every which place. The band, the promoters, even the advertisers, the club owner, the building inspector...did they say they would use these firework things?!? became quite a media event (the club was owned by a news anchor) Now nearly every club or gathering has exit signs and no one in their right mind does pyrotechnics inside anymore. My grandmother was probably to the left when she was around. She implied that she thought the government should provide smoke detectors to people (she lived without one for...well decades and that was with people smoking in the house) |
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Joined: 06 Jul 2003
Posts: 8212
Location: Central CA
| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:55 pm Post subject: | |||||
That's the way I read it too actually... but with this drive toward turning over every service we receive from the government private entities to be run for profit, I fully expect the fat cats to eventually jump on it... especially since it's not anything new and has actually been tried before. Right now they're busy protecting their #1 cash cow, heaqlth insurance companies. You know what's going to happen under a for profit fire service... the nobles won't buy into it because as they constantly feel the need to remind us... they aren't the ones using most of the services and it's "unfair" that they should be called upon to help pay for services they don't use. So the costs of the program... and of maintaining obscene profit margins and increased value to the shareholders (428% increase in insurance company profits) will devolve directly on those who can't afford to foot the whole bill through increased premiums and reductions and eventually, refusals of service. So you're most likely right... there are numerous parallels between the health insurance industry and my vision for the fire service (prompted by having spent 35 years IN the fire service) under the same type of system being applied to health care.
I'm not really up on the carbon monoxide detectors... I retired 20 years ago and they hadn't been mandated by the state or county at that time. We did require smoke detectors in every sleeping area in a home in all new construction after a certain time in the 70s. This was amended a few years later to include one in the living areas that was within a certain distance of the kitchen. In the early 80s one of the smoke detector companies gave us several hundred smoke detectors which our crews installed free in the homes of the elderly and disabled. We also had a program in my district where once a year we inspected smoke detectors for elderly and disabled people and installed new batteries. I'm not sure what changes have taken place since then but that was a long time ago so I would imagine there may have been some. |
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Joined: 04 Jul 2003
Posts: 2078
| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:09 am Post subject: | |
Nofs, how are those wildfires going in California? You and FD are staying safe, I hope. 
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Joined: 06 Jul 2003
Posts: 8212
Location: Central CA
| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:51 pm Post subject: | |
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Oh yeah, we're fine... I live down in the green belt below the Sierra foothills now and FD lives on the central coast in another pretty safe area. The central part of the state isn't like Southern CA which is basically a desert area right down to the Pacific's edge and where so much of the population lives right at what we called the wildland interface.
Took me a long time to stop expecting my phone to ring during times like this. 
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Joined: 04 Jul 2003
Posts: 2078
| Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 4:06 am Post subject: | |
No kidding about that ringing phone. Ill be praying for all you out there, though. Could still happen there. 
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