It IS Happening, and in Commiefornia, Of All Places!

A while back, I mused on a possible outcome of the economic situation in the USSA, in Lemonade for Voluntaryists?. And today, I discover that the lemonade is starting to flow.

Private firefighters’ role growing in state is the SF Chronicle story I saw, courtesy of Strike the Root. A taste:

Across California, many of the bulldozers used to cut firebreaks are from private contractors, as are some of the aircraft used to drop retardant. Hundreds of private firefighters work alongside counterparts from government agencies, cutting fire breaks, setting backfires and mopping up.

Increasingly, the job of fighting fires and protecting homes is being done not by the government, but by private companies.

"We call it the fire industrial complex," said Timothy Ingalsbee, a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter and now executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, a nonprofit in Eugene, Ore., dedicated to environmentally sound fire management. "It's big business, and business is booming."

And of course, some are not happy about that [emphasis mine]:

Critics say contracting out traditionally public functions ... shifts accountability, can be more expensive and erodes people's confidence in government.

"What's worrying about private firefighters is that there are growing portions of the economy that are banking on, gambling on, that there are going to be more and more natural disasters," said Naomi Klein, author of the book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." "People are going to forget the point that's actually involved here - solving the problems like Category 5 hurricanes and wildfires."

Wait a minute. The state has accountability? In the aftermath of Katrina and the trailers and telecom immunity for their spying on behalf of the government, that’s a real laugh. Private businesses have always had more accountability than state agencies—even including the protectionism businesses often receive from laws and regulations.

This quotation from Naomi Klein leads me to think she isn’t nearly as intelligent as others have made her out to be. There is just no other way of characterizing someone who is apparently incapable of recognizing the subtle distinctions between those few, twisted individuals who do truly enjoy witnessing human misfortune, and others who stand ready when it strikes, so that they can help people recover from the damage. The fact that they make some money in the process is no cause for shame or dishonor. Yes, the likelihood of disaster striking a particular location is a gamble, but if taken by a private entity, its potential loss is contained to that company and its investors, if any. If funded via taxation, everybody loses.

And what does she mean by “solving problems” of hurricanes and wildfires? Both are natural phenomena, which, while inconvenient to some humans at the time, probably offer some long-term benefits (we know this to be true with wildfires). Maybe next Klein will turn her mighty intellect to the “problem” of gravity—after all, I hear many people weigh too much, so if we could just get earth to lighten up its pull, we’d all be so much better off!

All this hand-wringing about private solutions is so much silliness. The first firefighting crews known in this country were private volunteers. Who here hasn’t heard the phrases, “If you want it done right, do it yourself” and “Good enough for government work”? Besides, given the state’s performance record, it doesn’t exactly take a herculean effort to surpass them. If confidence is misplaced then it ought to be eroded.

In my opinion, the erosion couldn’t happen to a more deserving gaggle of gasbags.