The buzz this week seems to have been the Tennessee Firefighters who let a home burn to the ground whose owners hadn't paid a 75 dollar service fee. Now, I side with the majority whose opinion is that it was wrong for the fire department to do, but I don't share the opinion I've seen voiced by a number of pwogessives and libruls that this is an example of some future Libertarian existence or the Free Market gone awry. Look: there's a government-mandated monopoly on firefighting services which a) create a monopoly on potential service providers, and b) make it basically impossible for community-oriented local solutions to take hold except in some specific parts of the country. I think that when the state creates an environment where it mandates that it's the only game in town, it has a moral obligation to respond to an even like the one that took place. That said, it's not hard to imagine a myriad of alternatives one would find preferable to the current situation. Anyhow, I just wanted to share a few links on the subject that I found interesting.
First, Radley Balko over at The Agitator asks his readers what they think about the subject and the comments section is (unusually, for a libertarian blog) fairly interesting. Also included is discussion of a Puppy Mill ballot question that is appearing in Missouri.
BroadSnark mentions the incident in one of her news roundups.
Finally, Roderick Long over at Austro-Athenian Empire has an in-depth and insightful post which examines both issues surrounding the incident as it happened as well as potential alternative approaches to firefighting and how a freed market may have responded in this scenario. Definitely a must read.
Of course, there are plenty of other places all over the interwubs where this issues has been discussed, but these were just a few from folks who I find particularly interesting (even if I don't endorse every point being made in all cases).
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