I’d really like to see the capitalist Fire Brigade, if only to see Terry Pratchett proven right once again.
Ankh-Morpork no longer had a fire brigade. The citizens had a rather disturbingly direct way of thinking at times, and it did not take long for people to see the rather obvious flaw in paying a group of people by the number of fires they put out. The penny really dropped shortly after Charcoal Tuesday.
The original capitalist fire brigade were local companies that a business owner or homeowner could pay to come and put out a fire. They were given a cast iron plaque, called a “Fire Mark,” to put on their building, next to the door. When the fire brigade showed up, and there was no Fire Mark, they’d just watch the building burn down, unless the owner paid immediately.
When cities decided that was a terrible system, those fire brigade companies morphed into the first insurance companies, and they’ve been parasites on our lives ever since.
weirdly i was actually thinking about this the other day and i don’t think it’d go back to that state of affairs. i think we already have an example of what it’s turn into: US emergency departments
they can’t refuse to treat anyone but someone’s on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars of inflated costs. if you don’t have insurance, you’re in debts
i imagine it’d be the same with a non-socialist fire department: they show up to a building and put it out as normal and can’t refuse… 95% of people have fire insurance, and if you don’t you’re in fire debt that costs more than the building they “saved” - and then it still probably has to get torn down because of the damage
and then they’d still justify it saying that they protected the buildings around you which you’d be responsible for repairing if they didn’t put the fire out so it’s not even about your building
I’d really like to see the capitalist Fire Brigade, if only to see Terry Pratchett proven right once again.
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo
The original capitalist fire brigade were local companies that a business owner or homeowner could pay to come and put out a fire. They were given a cast iron plaque, called a “Fire Mark,” to put on their building, next to the door. When the fire brigade showed up, and there was no Fire Mark, they’d just watch the building burn down, unless the owner paid immediately.
When cities decided that was a terrible system, those fire brigade companies morphed into the first insurance companies, and they’ve been parasites on our lives ever since.
weirdly i was actually thinking about this the other day and i don’t think it’d go back to that state of affairs. i think we already have an example of what it’s turn into: US emergency departments
they can’t refuse to treat anyone but someone’s on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars of inflated costs. if you don’t have insurance, you’re in debts
i imagine it’d be the same with a non-socialist fire department: they show up to a building and put it out as normal and can’t refuse… 95% of people have fire insurance, and if you don’t you’re in fire debt that costs more than the building they “saved” - and then it still probably has to get torn down because of the damage
and then they’d still justify it saying that they protected the buildings around you which you’d be responsible for repairing if they didn’t put the fire out so it’s not even about your building