Taxes and Subscriptions: The Same Result

Mark of New Jersey

Mark is a Founding Editor of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, the predecessor of Ordinary Times.

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16 Responses

  1. ThatPirateGuy says:

    Do you really think that 75 dollars is going to put the house in arrears? and if so couldn’t they rent?

    I figure this was either an idiot getting greedy, or someone who didn’t even realize what they were refusing.

    With taxes your pets don’t burn to death.Report

    • @ThatPirateGuy,

      Did you even watch the local news report? According to report, the home-owner said the fire took two hours to spread from the burn barrels to the house. And there was no mention of pets.Report

    • @ThatPirateGuy,
      1. On the issue of burning pets, that’s part of what I was alluding to when I referenced losing “everything and everyone inside of” the home.
      2. Are the odds of being put in arrears for a $75 delinquency in a given year smaller than the odds of being the victim of a fire in that same year? I would certainly suspect the opposite is true. At a minimum, the odds of being placed in arrears would certainly increase significantly each year one was unable to make the payment, while the odds of being a fire victim would remain essentially constant from year to year.

      There are certainly plenty of reasons why one would and perhaps should prefer a tax-based system to a “pay-for-spray” system, but a preference for the average person over the privileged is not one of them.Report

    • Simon K in reply to ThatPirateGuy says:

      @ThatPirateGuy, Its possible to choose rationally not to insure against certain risks. Just sayin’Report

  2. “That’s not to say that a tax isn’t the best way of handling fire service in Obion County, Tennessee (I’m not qualified to answer that)”

    Any enthusiasm for the idea that perhaps the voters of Obion County may have arrived at the solution best suited to the imperfect geographical and economic realities of providing rural fire-protection service?Report

  3. Rufus F. says:

    I lived for a while in a county in the US that found they couldn’t afford a number of things, but the most pressing was full time 9.1.1. rescue services. People were understandably upset and demanded ambulances. The problem was every time they tried to raise the revenue, people were upset about that. At one point, they were considering a soda tax, which was a source of outrage. So I can understand why some areas would rather have a pay-for model than listen to angry taxpayers.Report

  4. Mike Schilling says:

    Someone needs to explain the Laffer Curve to Obion County, so they can lower taxes and increase revenue.Report

  5. Lyle says:

    People in the cities pay county taxes also so the folks in the cities would be paying twice for fire protection. You need an emergency services district or give the county the ability to add a municipal services tax to those who do not live in the city. This is the same problem with libraries and the like, if a city has one, and the county does not have the ability to set up a taxing district to charge those in the county for services. Actually for libraries the case is less clear a fee there makes more sense, since rarely is going to a library an emergency, and the fee would be for a card to check out books.Report

    • Trumwill in reply to Lyle says:

      @Lyle, not necessarily. Where I’m originally from, unincorporated areas pay special taxes for police protection from the Sheriff’s Department while those living in cities with their own departments don’t. I don’t see why it couldn’t work that way for fire protection as well.Report

      • Lyle in reply to Trumwill says:

        @Trumwill, Indeed that is what an emergency services district does it collects taxes to pay for fire and possibly ambulance. The names vary from state to state, and how to do it varies depending on the states laws and if a township or similar structure covers unincorporated areas. Basically the idea is to let the voters of an area decide to tax themselves for the services.Report

  6. E.C. Gach says:

    There’s also the concern about my neighbor letting his house burn down, and my home value suffering as a result of his bizarre cost-benefit analysis. Though I’m sure the population density is small enough for this part of Tennessee that they wouldn’t really feel like my neighbor anyway, so at least if they choose to burn they burn alone.Report