Now how would the Fire Department make money, they would charge a monthly fee for each property to protect from fires. Say there is a fire at your property the Fire Department would go out and do what the fire department typically dose take out the fires of the property. The Fire Department can charge a fee of $5 per square feet per year. For simplistic sake lets say you have a property of 1,000 square feet. That would be $5,000 a year/12 months which equal about $417 a month. This of course is a very simplistic, in real life it may be a lot lower than $5 per square feet. This would apply to the property owners. Now if somebody doesn't want to take the fire department insurance then they will run the risk of losing all the property they own if it caught on fire.
What about apartment complexes? The property owner would have some liability if there is a fire in an apartment. The apartment complex can say to the people who live there do you want your property to be protected? The vast majority would say yes and they would be gladly take the higher rent if that meant if there is a fire then there would be less damage if they don't.
What if you don't have fire department insurance but still want the fire department to come out and take out the fire? You can but if you are willing to pay a big fee because they don't know what the fire department company is getting into.
Could there be two different fire departments in one city? Well, yes, each fire department would be a company and if somebody doesn't want have fire department x but they want fire department y then they can either create one or convince a entrepreneur to get into the business of fire departments. Then there would be competition among x and y. The consumer wins! Because they will be competing for you and they want to have a high quality service with the lowest possible price.
Yes, a Fire Department can and should be formed into a private company and that the market is to open to anybody that wants to go into the fire department business.
Not quite done with this, I thought I all ready done it, I'll add more too it latter.
ReplyDeleteNow what happens when, say in a neighborhood like North Minneapolis where the houses are close together, and on house catches fire, but didn't elect to pay the fire department money to protect the property (note this sounds a lot like the extortion that gangs used to do) and the house next door did pay to have it protected. The first house is close enough that it is now damaging the second house, but not actually catching it on fire, or is maybe just filling it with smoke. If the fire department starts to put out the fire in the first house, they are now trespassing, and are likely to get sued, maybe because the owner didn't like his house and wanted to make sure it was completely burned down since it was on fire anyway and collect the insurance money. While this is far fetched, it shows a point that when things are privatized, the liability doesn't go away, it only shifts, and may get much harder to deal with.
ReplyDeleteAnother point you made is that there could be 2 fire departments in one area. The problem with this is that fire departments have infrastructure. Who controls the system of fire hydrants, who maintains them, etc. This is why you normally only have one cable provider and electric utility provider in an area.
What happens when someone dies in a fire, and the fire department didn't come because they didn't pay the extortion fee, most likely because they couldn't afford it.
What happens when someone who can afford the fee, still dies in a fire. Is their family going to sue the private fire department? Are fire fighting costs going to inflate to the extreme like our medical system costs because of lawsuits?
I agree that many things in our country could be privatized, but not fire, police and ambulance services. People should have a right to these services.
Also, $5000 a year is more that most people pay in taxes on their property. Charging by the square foot seems like it would be a tax on the rich because they usually will have larger houses, but they are more spread out and less likely to spread a fire out of control from building to building.
This used to be the norm. There were so many problems with a system like this, the city(county?) eventually took it over. There are still some pockets where it is done this way. Matter of fact, a year or so ago someones house burned to the ground because he failed to pay the 10$/year service fee. The fire truck was literally right in front of the house and didn't do anything. The owner was offering to pay out of pocket a ridiculous price then and there, but they refused.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, would you really want one more check before the fire dept puts the fire out? What if your house failed to get entered into the system? Sure, you could sue them. But that won't replace all your priceless valuables.
Also, I believe in most places in the US, ambulance services are actually run by private companies. This is why, technically speaking, an ambulance can be pulled over for speeding.