http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101005/pl_yblog_upshot/rural-tennessee-fire-sparks-conservative-ideological-debate

This has made me utterly furious. What do you guys think? Debate!

way2fail america

What a jerks are those!
Sitting while the home burns just to see the home owner suffer from the lost of his property, couldn't they help the poor man just a little?

They still shoulda done it. That's discrimination against farmers.

Oh whoa, what a heavy load of bs.

Jerks.

I sorta agree that you need to pay the fees, but when a person's life is in danger you need to do what you can to try and save that person's life and home. I mean it is only $75, it is not like it is going to fix the global economic crisis.
Jerks.

Firefighers are real heroes.

I did a little research into Obion County, TN. The population is 31375. Here is the age pyramid:



If you figure that 20% of the 31375 own homes, that makes for approximately 6000 people that pay the $75 fee. Multiply the two together, and you come up with $450000. That is a lot of money, I don't care who you are. But if only one person misses it, give me a break. You take out 1/6000th or LESS than 2 ONE HUNDREDTHs of ONE percent. And, considering fire and rescue is supposed to be a public service already paid by taxes, which this $75 charge appears to not be considering it is optional, it is my opinion that the firefighters and the county are in the wrong in this situation. Not only is it morally wrong to let someone's house burn down when you are ready to fight it and possibly save the losses, it is also quite RIDICULOUS to make people pay $75 for fire service.

In addition, the per capita income for this county is $17000. $75 to a person who only makes $17000 is a hell of a lot of money.

There is one other final reason the county is in the wrong. By letting the person's house burn down and being royal dickheads about not saving it, chances are they just lost the money that was being paid by the family to the county. I am sure this total was more than $75 per year. Would you rather save the person's home and the tax income than make them move somewhere else and take their taxpaying abilities with them?

Not a smart decision by the firefighters or the county morally or practically.

The argument for the firefighters is that had he payed the $75, he would have only been paying it when he needed it, which is freeloading. It's like not buying an insurance plan untill you are about to die, saying that if the company doesn't give you the plan, you'll die, and then you'll just cancel it once you are better again, which defeats the whole point of insurance in the first place.

However, this man said that he would pay WHATEVER NECESSARY to extinguish the fire. That could have up to 1000 dollars, which in my opinion is what should have been done. There should be a very expensive fee for those who choose not to pay the $75 bucks a year. What is truly a shame though is that the fire protection isn't free.

Exactly. I mean, for Christ's sake, I always thought Fire and Police were public servants.

What's next, we're going to have to pay our police departments to protect us from home invasions?

Go to hell money greedy-ass idiots. Get a freaking heart.

Exactly mega. Do the right thing, deal with financial problems after.

The only way this could get worse was if the Fire Department started the fire in the first place

That reminds me of Fahrenheit 451...

And those firemen are jerks

Don't blame it on the firemen guys. They're only following orders. Blame it on the money hungry bastards of Northwest Tennessee.

Wow. What the fuck?

He should sue.