>>>>>>>I'm with you. There's no excuse for such a basic service not being covered by tax dollars. No one should have to pay separately for a fire company.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Tamar
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Well that's it then. Hell's frozen over.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I agree.
>>>>>
>>>>>That's cool! We've found at least one service that we agree is a public responsibility and should be tax-funded. We'll never agree on everything, but I'm pretty sure we could find some other things as well, if we tried.
>>>>>
>>>>>Tamar
>>>>
>>>>I think there are a number of services that should be tax funded, including..
>>>>
>>>>Police/Fire/EMT should be available to all except the terminally stupid - those that take idiotic risks - you know - extreme sports and such.
>>>>
>>>>National Defense. No "I'm sorry Mr. Jones - you haven't paid your yearly defense surcharge so you have no air cover".
>>>>
>>>>Health Care - yeah - Health Care. A REAL health care system - not the BS currently in the pipes. Tax funded. Sick? Go to the doctor or hospital. Done. No insurance BS at all.
>>>>
>>>>Schools - all the way through 4 year state college.
>>>
>>>I agree with all of those except the extreme sport. If a taxpayer has an accident while skydiving, they should still get emergency care.
>>
>>I don't consider skydiving an extreme sport in it's generally practiced form. There are solid safeguards in place that will keep most people (aside from the terminally stupid) reasonably safe.
>>
>>Parachute jumping from a building or a cliff moves into the terminally stupid realm. Bill the next of kin for the cleanup.
>
>Here on Vancouver's North Shore we have 3 local ski hills where yo-yos like to go out of bounds, world-class mountain biking with extreme trails and riders and 4-season hiking in mountainous terrain. Our local SAR team, North Shore Rescue is (I believe) one of the busiest in the world. A number of times each year there are outrageous stories of people being rescued from their own ignorance or stupidity (or both) and local citizens write letters to editors demanding that the authorities charge these people to recover costs.
>
>Even though most of the SAR teams in this province are volunteers (only reimbursed for fuel, equipment wear/damage etc.), to a man/woman NONE of them want these people to be charged. The reason basically is that the longer the delay in calling for help, the worse the outcome. Someone who knows they'll be charged for a rescue will either wait longer or not call at all (perhaps trying a self-rescue).
>
>In the old days, SAR teams would send out a few members into likely areas for a search, and if unsuccessful then they'd ramp up to more members on a more intense search. Modern practice is to hit hard and fast, to minimize the amount of time people are in trouble and improve the outcome. Anything that might introduce a delay in a rescue goes completely against this thinking.

Personally I don't want to see EMT/SAR/etc people risking their necks due to other people's absolute stupidity. To me there is a point where you tell the victim/family/next of kin good luck and go away.

I'd rather emergency responders, equipment, and supplies be available for emergencies, not cleaning up after idiocy.

You can't fix the entire gene pool.