Governments have been increasingly "progressive" for centuries, what with democracy, liberalism, and so on. All the time, progressive policies are being implemented. And yet instead of getting better, the world just seems to get more and more chaotic, more and more unpleasant.
So, what you are saying (or at least implying) is that the world needs a few good despots. Anyone got a copy of "The Prince" handy?
The citizens are the government and they have elected not to provide this service as a taxpayer funded service. The citizens of this county have CHOSEN to have this service only by subscription. This person was not in danger, nor were any members of his family, so this was not a public safety issue and the government is not under any obligation to protect a persons property from damage the person chooses to inflict on it. If the citizens of the county were to enact a tax to cover the expense of providing county wide fire protection, then they would not have to subscribe to a service. It's quite simple really.
I just can't understand how people can assume the government has unlimited resources. Tax and spend only works when you implement the tax side of the equation. Spend and spend is not viable long term.
Typically, life-or-death services (e.g. police/fire) fall under the latter, but I guess rural Tennessee is different.
Funny you should mention that, I was watching "House Hunters" on HGTV not too long ago, and they were searching for a home in Tennessee. They looked at homes both inside and outside the small city where they wanted to live and the agent pointed out that the taxes are much lower in the county than in the city. There are consequences for choices like that. This is a common practice in rural parts of the US. Having lived most of my life in Montana, I was actually surprised when I moved to Western Washington to see publicly owned fire houses in rural areas. Every couple years, the people in the counties opt to renew funding for rural fire protection through taxation.
When I was a kid (more than a few decades ago) in Montana, my family moved outside the city to get a bigger space (land and house). When we did, the only services the county provided were the county Sheriff and county road maintenance. I think they had a little equipment for fighting grass fires, but nothing to deal with structures (the costs for equipment and staffing are very different for the two). The county taxes were quite a bit lower than the city taxes and this was the result. For a lot of people who lived in the county lower taxes was a big part of their decision and they got what they paid for. My parents subscribed to a fire fighting service that served most of our county. (They also subscribed to a trash service because the city provided that only to tax payers as well.) We had stickers on every phone, and I think one on the window by the front door, with the number of the fire service, you called them directly back then. There were people in the county who decided they didn't want the protection and decided not to subscribe, but that was their choice and some of them lost their houses every year. Those that lost their homes one year had the reminder of those who lost their homes the year before, but they still chose not to subscribe.
Oh, and we had a burn barrel for burnable trash as well. The trash service charged by the number of cans you had and with 6 children, we produced a lot of trash. What would burn went into a 55 gal drum with no top on it and we threw in a couple of matches.
He made a choice to let his house burn if it caught fire when he decided not to subscribe to the service. The home owner made the call before any of this happened. It was a conscious decision on his part to not pay for the subscription because he had something else he wanted to spend the $75 on. Because he failed to pay the fee, it was too expensive to fully insure his house, so now he whines about that too. It's that simple. They were not mean, or thoughtless or any of those things. They simply followed the rules that everyone who lives in a rural area knows.
Let me say it again, the HOMEOWNER CHOSE TO LET HIS HOUSE BURN when HE FAILED TO SUBSCRIBE. Who are we to deny him his right to choose after all?
we have to send Bruce Willis' head in a jar right now.
I for one am really quite OK with that, I don't think it is being used for much of anything right now. Somebody go grab the head and we'll find a rocket to juice up someplace. I'm pretty sure one of the pickle jars from a restaurant will work, I'll see if I can find one.
The one day you'd sell your soul for something, souls are a glut.