Ayn Rand Conservatism at Work -- Firefighters Let Family's House Burn Down Because Owner Didn't Pay $75 Fee

[teko]

October 4, 2010 | Thanks to 30 years of right-wing demagoguery about the evils of "collectivism" and the perfidy of "big government" -- and a bruising recession that's devastated state and local budgets -- we're getting a peek at a dystopian nightmare that may be in our not-too-distant future. It's a picture of a society in which "rugged individualism" run amok means every man for himself.

Call it Ayn Rand's stark, anti-governmental dream come true, a vision that last week turned into a nightmare for Gene Cranick, a rural homeowner in Obion County, Tennessee. Cranick hadn't forked over $75 for the subscription fire protection service offered to the county's rural residents, so when firefighters came out to the scene, they just stood there, with their equipment on the trucks, while Cranick's house burned to the ground. According to the local NBC TV affiliate, Cranick "said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn't do anything to stop his house from burning."


Link for article in its entirety

http://www.alternet.org/story/148407/ayn_rand_conservatism_at_work_--_firefighters_let_family%27s_house_burn_down_because_owner_didn%27t_pay_%2475_fee

[teko]

Per the article, he did offer to pay and was told too late. I agree with sara, they should have saved the animals and the house and then fined the hell out of him, put a lean on the house if they had to, but to do what they did is obscene to say the least. What if those animals had been kids instead. What in gods name are we turning into.

[margypops]

sicko sicko he stood by whilst his 3 dogs and 1cat perished in that fire rather than pay their blood money

[Sarajmt]

He should have paid the $75.  But it would have been the moral thing to put the fire out. Then charge him an astronomical fee for it.  Fire departments cost money.  They aren't free to start up or operate.  Even volunteer fire departments need money.  If residents refuse to pay, how can they operate the fire department?  Sorry about his house but he should have paid.  $75 is pretty cheap fire insurance.