HOW WOULD A FIRE DEPARTMENT WORK
WITHOUT COLLECTIVISM?
© by G. Edward Griffin 2010 July 29
Here is an interesting question I received last week from Johnny Garza. I like questions like this because they show that someone really is focusing on the ideology of individualism and is exploring how it effects human behavior in everyday life. Johnny writes:
“I would like to ask Mr. Griffin a question that is posed to me often by liberals, that is: “If you as a libertarian believe in small government, then what would you do if a fire broke out in your neighbor’s house and they didn’t have the money to pay for the privatized fire dept to put out the fire? In other words, where do the commons begin and where does it end in the Libertarian view of our government, and who is it that makes this decision if not a group of individuals seeking what’s best for the majority of people?
|
HERE WAS MY REPLY:
I would help my neighbor even if he did not contribute. That is the instinctive and right thing to do, and the great majority of people would respond in the same way.
The same is true in other areas of need as well. In the days prior to socialized medicine, if a person was ill and could not pay for medical service, doctors and hospitals routinely allocated a portion of their resources to help them on the basis of genuine charity. Very few really sick people were turned away until government took over. After people were forced through taxes to pay for government-organized social programs, they began to feel they were already doing their share, and only then did they begin to say, as Scrooge did when asked to help the less fortunate at Christmas, “Are there no poor houses?”
If I were organizing a private fire service or a private police service, our company would do its best to protect everyone we could, even if they were not subscribers. Naturally, we would put our customers’ interests first, because that would be our primary obligation, but after that, we would help anyone in need.
Not only is that the right thing to do, but it also would be good for business. It would generate good will and, inevitably, would lead to more subscriptions. Most people will gladly pay a reasonable fee for protection of their life, liberty, and property. Competition with other firms offering the same service would keep quality high and price low. If needed, fund-raising drives, such as now are conducted for charitable organizations, would be well supported by a grateful public. In fact, in many small communities, volunteer fire departments are operated on a model almost identical to this, and they work very well.
Freedom-of-choice always is better than coercion – even with fire departments.
Back
