The Glade 4.0

I can agree with that, although the "stealing" part is a little but much for me to swallow, although I do agree that people are being conditioned to have a sense of entitlement.

Harsh lesson indeed.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Watch Keith Olbermann lie his *** off in an interview with the homeowner here

No Keith, they do not pay an additional fee on top of taxes. They pay an additional fee instead of the city taxes that they don't have to pay becuase they live outisde city limits. Sure, they pay it on top of any county, stte, or federal taxes they pay, but then city residents pay city taxes on top of them as well.

I also love the fact that it was started by this guy burning trash in the first place. You'd think tht would be n incentive not to be such a cheapass. Then he admits that he'd gotten away with calling them in the past and paying afterwards. In other words, he wants the same fire coverage as anyone else, but to only pay for it when he has a fire while everyone else foots the bill.

What an *******. "Well, I just forgot to pay". After you'd already been through this once with them on the previous fire? I ahve news for you, jack, that's why they let your house burn. Making exceptions means people "forget" a whole lot more.

I also love Olbermann's attempt to link a 20-year-old policy to the Tea Party. Then he, at the end says "You pay your taxes, you'd think it would be covered in that" and cuts the guy off before he can reveal that Keith isn't being up front about who is paying what taxes.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

It's fine to feel sorry for the guy. I feel sorry that his house burned down. I don't feel sorry for the fire department not putting it out.

It's not a matter of not looking at it from another angle. There's simply no reason to think that he couldn't afford it. Nothing he said implies that.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I can see where setting a limit would be well-intentioned, because you're probably looking at a sole provider in any given area who could charge pretty much whatever the hell they wanted when it comes right down to it. But I imagine the underlying issue is that the real cost of a fire department, framed in terms of events instead of premiums spread across a community, is way more than any one person's going to want to/be able to pay.

If you *were* going to try to come up with some way to regulate charges/fees for people not paying a premium, you'd maybe look to instead charge based on what it really costs to put the thing out instead of doing premiums that are pegged on your home's value - and not just "what does it cost to shoot water at this structure for a while" but, like DE said, factor in also what the thermal imaging sensor cost the fire department, how much did it cost to train everyone to use the thing, etc.

I bet if you had a formula that divides total operating expenses for a department by (number of fires put out, adjusted in some way for scale, like "this one was a three alarm fire" versus "this guy's burn pile got out of hand") to arrive at a price, that the premium suddenly looks really really good.

Of course I don't think anyone's arguing that the guy should be able to get service and not pay, it's just sad that there was no lenience when he was caught in an "oh crap" moment. It's just unfortunate that people in general suck (/nod Taly) and if there was lenience, people would be taking advantage of that leniency left and right.

Edit: and sure enough while I type it comes up that the guy had taken advantage of leniency before

That would be a risk with privatized fire services, but this is a government fire department, so it isn't supposed to be trying to make a profit, beyond what will be needed for anticipated expenses such as expansion, new equipment, a small buffer fund to handle emergency expenses, etc.

The billing company charging 22% is somewhat of a different issue, and I think that's rather excessive.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

A legislation which allows fire departments to take a certain amount of equity in the un-covered property being saved (if such a request is made by the owner) might help.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I don't see how this would help any more than the tax lien. Fire departments need liquid currency to be able to pay for expenses. How would they obtain this equity in any kind of useable form in a reasonable timeframe?

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

The end result is the home owner either pays far more than $75 a year from that point forward, or they forfeit their home and the fire department gets a large portion of the auction money.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I'm not following how this would happen.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

The equity the fire department gets becomes like a mortgage. If they don't pay it, the fire department forecloses. The fire department might have to split the proceeds of the foreclosure with any other institution that has a mortgage on the property, but they still get a reasonable chunk of money if the person is a deadbeat.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Terrible idea.

If the guy didn't have a "Go f*** yourself" attitude toward the community before, it's quite likely that he does now.

The banks certainly wouldn't like it. It would, however, have given one more option to the poor **** with his house burning down, and one that would have actually made the Fire Department a profit.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Talya:
I can see that leading to extraordinarily large service fees which in many cases would completely preclude their payment.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

If I were his neighbor, I'd be pissed at him and the fire department. It affects my property value.

Nothing was preventing the neighbor from taking out a private policy covering exactly that, Arathain.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Sort of. This is rural Tenessee, and I doubt either property was all that attractive to begin with. The neighbor evidently had a field there that the fire department protected from burning up.

In any case, the neighbor has little reason to be pissed at the fire department. He's paying for fire protection for himseld, not fire protection for the guy next door to protect his property value. If he wants that, he could pay for both of them.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I don't see that there was any problem with ability to pay. It was simply willingness; either he didn't want to, or it was not important enough to him to remember.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

No. Not pay the other guy's fees, I literally mean taking out a policy to specifically cover that singular event on his neighbors house, or damage to his own property directly related to a fire on his neighbor's property. It is definitely legal to underwrite, and the second homeowner definitely has an insurable interest in his neighbors property. Due to the exclusive nature of the contract as to when benefits are to be paid the costs would be minimal enough as to be unnoticeable if it were to be attached as a rider to a regular home insurance policy.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Heh. Could you imagine if you were a complete tool, had no insurance and your house burned down - then your neighbor came over and said "here's the money for a new house - I took out a policy because I know you're a **** up."

"Um... thanks?"

I like this version better.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Depending on who the beneficiary was, and how the contract was written, either is possible.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I suppose you could do that, but why bother when you can just pay the $75 for the fire coverage?

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

The policy is likely cheaper, and you:

a) can realize direct cash benefits for yourself
b) aren't being robbed by the leach living next door

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

It seems excessively complicated to me, but I don't see anything wrong with it.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."