killchain wrote:
Washintonian_For_Liberty wrote:
...The only people who WANT there to continue to be publicly funded professional fire departments are either ignorant of what it takes to be a fire fighter... or they want to keep taking our money. 90% of the calls our local fire department responds to require only an EMT crew.... yet they usually respond with one Fire truck and the EMS van... total waste of money and man power. Six firefighters responding to a heart attack? ...
Yeah... except when the private ambulance owner doesn't want to get up at 3am, and when they try to press charges on him he says, "Well, it's my own private business. I can do what I want."
And if YOU were having a heart attack, you'd be PISSED that they didn't send all of that for you.
You're not a business owner are you? In fact, you probably have no clue what it means to run and grow a good business. There are more private ambulance services in this country than there are public... and the private have a much better track record for response time and care given... so do some research before you make claims that are not supported by the facts. Private EMS providers outperform government in many categories. For example, 70 percent of private agencies have defibrillation devices (used for heart attacks), compared to only 48 percent of city fire-rescue agencies and rescue workers. More private agencies (48 percent) are using advanced technology, such as the automotive vehicle locator, than city fire-rescue agencies (20 percent). Perhaps most important of all, 66 percent of private, for-profit EMS providers are subject to external reviews by their governing municipalities while bureaucracies just cannot audit themselves with any honesty. Private EMS firms also can provide services less expensively than fire departments. For instance, privately employed paramedics (who make up 34.5 percent of all paramedics) don't cost as much as government firefighters. Typically, they make about 75 percent of the firefighters wages. And one hook-and-ladder truck used on an EMS run costs more than six ambulances.
In addition, contracts between municipalities and private EMS providers are moving to a performance-based model that ties funding, payment and resource allocation to the performance of the providers. Private firms are also are making better use of technology and accessing advanced equipment more quickly than public agencies-and enhanced technology promises to increase efficiency and save lives.
The same can be said about private fire fighting firms... the city pays private companies, and every four years, put the firefighting contract out for bid...
Having firefighters and EMS as public employees insures a worse job performance and a much higher expense.
As for the original topic... we don't need a huge police force... what we need is to stop arresting people for crimes where the only victim is the person supposedly committing the crime. We need to demand our State Lawmakers decriminalize all drugs. We need to demand our lawmakers stop enforcing and eliminate all seat belt laws... we need to stop making laws which give police the right to use force against people committing these victimless crimes.
