Of Fish, Fire, Flakes, Foibles, Fatuity, and Failure

The fact that this is so shocking speaks to how well America works: Most local governments do a good job of delivering essential governmental services, and we stare, slack-jawed and angry, when a component of the system fails so obviously.

This is a pair of smoked herrings (source).


This is what the flesh of a smoked herring looks like (source).



I'm not a much of a fish person (other than fish tacos, which are delicious), but even I can admire the texture and flavor of this slab. The red, smoky meat looks a bit like salmon.

This is what a different sort of red herring looks like.


Finally, this is the sort of person who loves (or, at the very least, makes a living by his willingness) to latch onto red herrings and other fallacies and talk. And talk. And talk. Directly. At the. Camera. With Gravitas. And interject things like, "How dare you, sir?" Angrily. Directly. At the. Camera. With Gravitas. And a straight face. Unironically.


This week, Keith Olbermann and many other pundits stumbled as they exploited a tragic fire in Tennessee to score political points. A foible common among ideologues is to see their ideology in every story, whether it actually fits or not. Here is what happened, how a number of people reacted, and why they've gotten it wrong:


Just the Facts, Ma'am
On September 29, 2010, a home belonging Gene Cranick and his family caught fire. The family called 911 a number of times and were told that the fire department would not come to their home, because they had not paid an annual $75 fire department fee. Eventually, the blaze spread to their neighbor’s property. The neighbor, who had paid the fee, called 911, and the fire department responded, put out the fire on his property, and left, allowing the Cranick home burn to the ground. All of their possessions were destroyed, and the family's pets--three dogs and one cat--were killed.

Awful, no matter how you look at it
This was a callous decision, and it's shocking to hear that professional firefighters would refuse to put out a fire over the matter of a fee. Clearly, this is a policy that needs to be addressed, and my heart goes out to Mr. Cranick and his family. He claims that he forgot to pay the fee, and I believe him, as I am the sort of person who forgets to pay property tax on my car pretty much every year.

We all forget important things. Life is busy, things happen, and all too often, they get forgotten. It is tragic and shameful that the Cranick family lost their house over what was almost certainly an honest mistake. This was an ethical and moral failure.

Bloviating, with extra fun for sports fans
A few days later, Keith Olbermann, a sportscaster turned (ahem) journalist, broke the story, and professional progressive pundits pounced on it with a sort of ghoulish enthusiasm, if not outright schadenfreude, at what this would spell for their political opponents.

On his “news” program, Olbermann dramatically intoned:

In both the small and big picture it represents the breakdown of government, and knowing hands-off, recklessly minimalist approach—an a la carte system that openly invites specific destruction in the short term and the deconstruction of basic governmental services in the long term.

In our fifth story: The home that was allowed to burn to the ground over a $75 fee not paid.

Now drawing the cheers of some conservatives, eager to defend the policy and blame the victims with local county authorities evidently unmoved by this, the home of Gene and Paulette Cranick burning as firefighters watched because they failed to pay their $75 subscription fee.

Almost immediately, others chimed in. (I mean these individuals no ill personally, by the way, and I imagine that I would like and respect them all if I knew them.)

ThinkProgress’s Zaid Jilani: "[T]here are currently two competing visions of governance in the United States. One, the conservative vision, believes in the on-your-own society, and informs a policy agenda that primarily serves the well off and privileged sectors of the country. The other vision, the progressive one, believes in an American Dream that works for all people, regardless of their racial, religious, or economic background...The conservative vision was on full display last week in Obion County, Tennessee."

Paul Hogarth of the alternate online daily BeyondChron: “This story brings to light the horrific consequences of what would happen if we let basic government decisions be made by right-wing ideologues. Next time you hear Grover Norquist and other anti-tax zealots say they wish to shrink the size of government until we 'drown it in the bathtub,' this is a real life example of their worldview. If the Tea Party zealots who have taken over the Republican Party prevail in November, expect more horrific consequences like what we’re seeing in Obion County, Tennessee.”

Robert Creamer at the Huffington Post: “The Obion County fire incident is symbolic of the moral and economic bankruptcy of the Tea-Party-Republican vision of government and the economy. And it poses the stark choice facing American voters in the Mid-Term elections…The core difference in values between the right wing and progressives is whether we create a society where we're all in this together, or all in this alone.”

AlterNet’s Joshua Holland: “Thanks to 30 years of right-wing demagoguery about the evils of ‘collectivism’ and the perfidy of ‘big government’ -- and a bruising recession that’s devastated state and local budgets -- we’re getting a peek at a dystopian nightmare that may be in our not-too-distant future. It’s a picture of a society in which “rugged individualism” run amok means every man for himself…Call it Ayn Rand’s stark, anti-governmental dream come true, a vision that last week turned into a nightmare for Gene Cranick, a rurual homeowner in Obion County, Tennessee”

Chauncey DeVega at salon.com: "This is a creeping rot. For example, on one day it is the most basic of "public goods"--the non-excludable items that every Introduction to Macroeconomics student learns about the first day of class--that are taken away because of an inability to pay. Tomorrow, it may be police protection. The following day, the exclusion could extend to something as basic as national defense--a service to be outsourced to the highest bidder…The burning of the Cranick's home is a sign of a deeper malaise. In total, their loss was an object lesson in the Right's libertarianism infused dystopian dreaming, where empathy and sympathy are trodden over by selfishness and a pure profit-loss calculation."

Except for Olbermann, I think that these are all bloggers, people who (like me) have a regular, full-time job and do this for fun, a sense of fulfillment, or something along those lines. Surely no reputable news organization would actually draw this conclus...What? The...Excuse me? The...Did you say The New York Times?!

Yes. “No amount of political ranting about limits to government could douse the flames for a homeowner in rural Tennessee who forgot to pay his annual surcharge for fire department protection.”

Jeez, ok. The New York Times too. What a shock.

How dare you, sir!
Um. Sorry, that was me channeling Olbermann. I promise, I won't do it again. Actually, I don't take offense at any of these brain trust candidates, because I have nothing whatsoever vested in the Tennessee debacle.  I'm pointing out that they are incorrect, and will explain why below, because I like a healthy debate, and no one else seems to be saying it. This story does not vindicate the progressive vision, nor does it represent a future Tea Party America, a fulfillment of Ayn Rand’s vision, or the natural consequences of conservatives gone wild. (Attn: Joe Francis-- For the love of God, do not take this phrase and run with it.)

Wait, did I read that right? (or compassionate conservatism, minus the adjective)
At National Review, blogger Kevin Williamson said the following: "The world is full of jerks, freeloaders, and ingrates — and the problems they create for themselves are their own. These free-riders have no more right to South Fulton’s firefighting services than people in Muleshoe, Texas, have to those of NYPD detectives." Yes, you read that correctly. I shuddered too.

On his radio program, Glenn Beck explained the situation, basically saying that the fire department just stuck to the rules, and that that was okay. He then said the following: "This is important for America to have this debate because, A, this is the kind of stuff that is going to happen. We are going to start to have to have these kinds of things." He followed with how this connects to ObamaCare, explaining how people will be able to opt in during an emergency, similar to the house fire situation. It's an unpleasant way to start a description of an ObamaCare failure, but it's a decent analogy. He was on live radio, and I seriously doubt that I could contextualize it half as well. All in all, he came across as a bit callous and somewhat exploitative, but the core of his argument was, at least, accurate; he did a pretty good job, if not an ideal one, using it as a segue into one of the more serious problems of ObamaCare.

Getting the story straight
For the sake of balance, here is Daniel Foster, a commentator who seems to get it more or less correct: "[W]hat moral theory allows these firefighters (admittedly acting under orders) to watch this house burn to the ground when 1) they have already responded to the scene; 2) they have the means to stop it ready at hand; 3) they have a reasonable expectation to be compensated for their trouble?"

A statement from the International Association of Fire Fighters gets it exactly right.  No platitudes, no politicization. "We condemn South Fulton's ill-advised, unsafe policy. Professional, career fire fighters shouldn't be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up. They get in their trucks and go." There's a reason that every child thinks of firefighters as heroes.

The actual significance of this story
First off, we do well to remember the adage, "If it bleeds, it leads." Many "news" stories are overblown and serve better as studies of the media than as actual news reporting. In addition to being stubborn things, facts are important ones, but that doesn't mean that many members of the media will let facts get between them and a story.

Those progressive pundits who claim that this was an exercise in libertarianism clearly haven't thought it through. This was a public, government service, not a private one. And even if the United States were a libertarian utopia (e.g. Galt's Gulch or the underwater wonderland of Rapture), communities like Obion County would almost certainly require a government-run, municipal fire department. (N.B. The word utopia comes from the Greek οὐ, "not", and τόπος, "place". It means "nowhere".)

Let's do a thought experiment: Let's say that communities started allowing greater competition for essential services, like many libertarians advocate. It's kind of an interesting idea to discuss with friends. We can imagine New York City; it lets multiple firefighting companies compete with the FDNY to put out a fire, and the one that gets there first gets a bounty. This might speed up firefighting a bit, maybe make it a little less expensive. However, even if cities started allowing this, rural communities would not be able to sustain multiple, local firefighting companies, because they lack the critical mass of fires for it to be profitable, and eventually all of the companies would go out of business, except for the government-run one, because it is funded by taxes and does not need to be efficient to be successful. That's ok. We don't mind a little overhead to ensure our safety, as long as it's not excessive or corrupt. In other words, the only way to ensure safety in places like Obion County is for the government to do it.

To put it a little more succinctly, no sane, mainstream individual (I am excluding anarcho-capitalists for obvious reasons) advocates getting rid of local firefighters, police, EMTs, etc. No, not even the most strident Tea Partier. No, seriously. The Tea Party meme didn't gain so much traction so quickly because so many people were angry about out-of-control local emergency services. It exploded (and has the potential to transform contemporary American politics) because people were angry about TARP, the nationalization of General Motors, the so-called stimulus, etc. As Peggy Noonan recently argued, a number of people are frightened that America is on the verge of not being America any longer (I'm roughly paraphrasing). I would venture a guess that most limited government types would advocate for greater funding for local police, firefighters, etc, as well as more robust victims' assistance programs, because this is the sort of thing that government does better, by the nature of how communities work, than anyone else.

In other words, the destruction of the Cranicks' home bears no relation to the rest of the country. At all. It was a single data point, not part of a trend. It was an unfortunate, isolated incident in Tennessee which was the outcome of an ill-conceived local policy. The fact that this is so shocking speaks to how well America works: Most local governments do a good job of delivering essential governmental services, and we stare, slack-jawed and angry, when a component of the system fails so obviously. And it is the failure of a particular local government that is the issue here.

To clarify how things are structured (for any unconvinced or forgetful progressives), there is no national fire service. (Thank goodness. Can you imagine how expensive and dreadful that would be? Envision a mini-Katrina or mini-Deepwater Horizon every time there’s an out-of-control grease fire.)

Since we don't have a National Department of Fire and Safety and Stuff (which is as silly as the competing, privatized rural fire departments mentioned above), there is no reason to suspect that there would be a change to how Obion, TN handles fires, even if the the People's United States were a workers' paradise where the bourgeoisie were a sad, unpleasant, distant memory and we had a ideal social safety net that ensured a nation without poverty. (Incidentally, I am looking forward to the day that the government has a perfectly-run, poverty-eliminating, equal-outcomes-for-all-ensuring safety net devoid of corruption and cronies, as it will signal their ability to deliver presents to every child, every year in the wee hours of December 25, using only a sleigh, eight tiny reindeer, and an outsized, albeit hardworking postman.)

In an excellent piece at Daily Finance, Bruce Watson explains the situation succinctly:

Obion County has eight municipal fire departments, all of which are supported by town taxes. Traditionally, these departments have provided coverage to the county. However, faced with the high cost of fire equipment, three of the towns -- South Fulton, Kenton, and Union City -- decided to adopt a subscription model, under which they offer coverage to rural homeowners located within five miles of the town, but charge $50-$75 per year for the service. Local departments also tried a "pay-as-you-go" system, under which they charged $500 to put out a fire, but were able to collect less than 50% of these fees.

Faced with a funding crisis, Obion identified three options: to pay for fire services, it could raise county income taxes, charge subscriptions to every rural homeowner in the county, or increase property taxes by $0.13 per $100 of property value. The property tax plan tanked, as farmers in the area didn't like the idea of paying taxes on farmland to provide services to homeowners. Regarding an income tax increase, the county faced political pressure to keep taxes low: as McGuire put it, "County commissioners will not raise taxes to provide fire service." The only remaining option is a county-wide subscription service, on the South Fulton model. On October 18th, the county commission will vote on that proposal. 

This represents a failure of a single, local government to solve a specific, local problem. It is not a failure of the market, a failure of any social safety net, or a side-effect of welfare reform (or whatever dystopian nationwide changes one decries).

The incident demonstrates the ineffectiveness of opt-in government services, and while the response of the fire department was a logical way to prevent the free rider problem, it was also a harmful and unnecessarily cruel one.

It is worth noting that the citizens of Obion County (and only the citizens of Obion County) are the people who are responsible for this policy. It is how a majority of them (or, more accurately, a majority of their elected representatives) has chosen to manage risk. It is not part of a trend in policy or political thought, and it has nothing to do with any national movement or party--Republican, Democrat, green, conservative, libertarian, anarcho-capitalist, anarcho-syndicalist, socialist, communist, moderate, whig, federalist, or anti-federalist.

The key failure point was that officials made firefighting a voluntary government service.

If a community offers essential public services (firefighters, police, etc), they need to be mandatory, using compulsory, locally-levied taxes to spread risk as evenly as possible to every member of the community. This idea is not progressive or conservative. It is, simply, sane, and neither side can claim it exclusively.

Such services are, of course, most effective when managed locally, perhaps leveraging best practices from other communities, as Milton Friedman reminds us: "If government is to exercise power, better in the county than in the state, better in the state than in Washington. If I do not like what my local community does, be it in sewage disposal, or zoning, or schools, I can move to another local community, and though few may take this step, the mere possibility acts as a check. If I do not like what Washington imposes, I have few alternatives in this world of jealous nations." (Capitalism and Freedom)

The other alternative would be a volunteer fire service, like many rural areas use, because that is the most cost-effective solution for geographically large areas with low population density. I don't know why Obion County doesn't use volunteer firefighters, although there is presumably a good reason. Volunteer firemen are community heroes across the country, and I imagine that Obion County will re-examine a force of them in the coming months.

Thankfully, neither of these options requires a penny of federal spending or oversight, and the blame for this tragedy cannot be laid on the shoulders of anyone outside the boundaries of Obion County.

A Word of Caution
This tragedy was caused, at least in part, by a fiscal problem, namely how to raise funds to pay for an essential community service. In all fairness to the firefighters of Obion County (which I have never visited), it sounds primarily like a local political failure and not their fault. An argument can be made that they should have disobeyed orders, but it is outside the job description to ask someone to risk his life and livelihood to play the hero, unless he knows that everyone else (or, at least, enough to fulfill the mission) will too.

Knowing that I risk falling into the trap that I have criticized above, I think that this is a good opportunity to point out the following: As a greater percentage of America's GDP goes to federal spending, less of it will be available for alternative uses: investment, personal spending, and state and local taxes. Taxation, especially at a federal level, essentially removes capital from an economy (akin to removing and eating a slice of a pie), whereas other uses tend to cause economic growth (akin, perhaps, to growing more ingredients to make a larger pie). In other words, taxation is destructive when it is above the amount required to provide those services (police, firefighters, schools, DMV, etc at the local level; military, infrastructure, the CDC, etc nationally) that only the government can provide appropriately and effectively.

This will be a significant problem in the coming years because the federal government very rarely actually cuts spending, and we can expect to see high discretionary federal spending, increasing outlays for entitlement programs as our population grays, and increasingly large bills to pay the interest on the ever-growing national debt (to say nothing of the principal).

To put it another way, as we send more money to Washington, less will be available locally, and it will be the harder  to fund essential needs to the satisfaction of most individuals. I don't mean to suggest, of course, that fire departments are, en masse, going to let homes start burning to the ground. That's just silly and insulting to the intelligence of the reader, much like the conclusions that some people (ahem) have drawn from this tragedy. It is possible, however, that fire departments (and police, EMTs, area mental health, etc) will be forced to take a pay cut or reduce staffing, which will increase the probability that they will be unable to answer every crisis.

Here in the real world, where firemen will keep fighting fires (every day) and police will keep putting their lives on the line to protect us (every day) and teachers will keep educating our often-unwilling children (every day), the future does not promise the prosperity that we have experienced in the past. Unless politicians get a handle on Federal spending (especially unfunded liabilities associated with Social Security and Medicare, which very few from either major party are willing to address), the coming years will be increasingly austere, and we will have to make hard decisions and think creatively to come up with solutions to the problems that we, like every society, will face.

Demographics, for perspective
The city of South Fulton has a population of ~2,500 (This and all other statistics come from the 2000 census), and its area is 3.1 square miles. The county of Obion has a population of ~32,500, and its area is 555 square miles. (The land area of Rhode Island is 1,045 square miles, to put things in perspective.) The other two towns, Kenton and Union City, have populations of ~1,300 and ~11,000, respectively, and their areas are 2 square miles and 10.7 square miles, respectively. Both are partially in Obion County and partially in another county.) The county is over 50 times as large, geographically, as the three cities that currently provide fire service to fee-paying county residents and all city residents.

Obion county map: