A month-and-a-half have passed since the horrific, mass-casualty Los Angeles/Pacific Palisades Wildfires in January, and, even before the devastating fires, warnings and lessons about the dangers of poorly managed, government-claimed, land, about poorly managed water systems, about the mismanaged Los Angeles Fire Department, and about the proven danger of power lines over tinder-filled land became apparent, and then glaring, as the flames ate land, home, health, lives, wealth, and hopes.
Years ago, MRCTV reported on the heavy presence of government control and authority that increased the fire threat.
And now, the collectivist colluders in California want to make it worse.
Kindsay Holden reports for Politico that AB-1075, proposed by Assemblyman Isaac Bryan (D) and Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor (D) would attack heroic private firefighting groups and their clients – people who lifted the burden off the tax-fed systems – helping government-tied unions push out efficient, ethical competition that has exposed the bureaucracy as the absurd, Kafka-esque circus it is:
“Los Angeles Democrats are teaming up with a statewide firefighters’ union on a bill aimed at private firefighting crews, such as the ones billionaire developer Rick Caruso hired to protect his properties as devastating wildfires burned swaths of the region.
The legislation would block private firefighting companies from hooking up to public hydrants, targeting a longstanding headache for the union.”
To her credit, Holden does acknowledge part of the reality of this dispute -- of this battle between the government-employed union with its clout in the CA Assembly, and this private land developer who used his own money to protect his own properties and the holdings of his clients. She notes that his team claims they did not use hydrant water.
“Caruso — who owns a shopping center in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood — was the most high-profile figure known to have hired private firefighters during the Los Angeles-area wildfires, though his team insists that he didn’t use any city water.”
This is true. Video of his privately-hired firefighting team shows that they brought their own giant water trucks.
“He was also a vocal critic of LA leaders’ response to the fires, particularly Mayor Karen Bass, his opponent during the 2022 mayoral election.”
This, also, is true. But Caruso stands out for having warned about the fire threat and mismanagement BEFORE the fires.
It’s almost comedic to see the oppressive forces of government try to choke to inaction the private system that arose because people like Caruso could see the towering mismanagement of both the California water and land management and the Los Angeles are government.
It’s nightmarish to see politicians and their union-power friends push to eliminate competitors who expose the largess and waste, the inefficiency and confusion of the bureaucracy.
The private system proved itself, and the government system failed, which is a lesson in ethics and economics – which, themselves, really are the same thing.
Mr. Caruso not only lifted the burden off tax-paid firefighters, allowing them to apply their efforts elsewhere, his own taxes helped pay the government, unionized, firefighters’ salaries and pay for that poorly managed water system.
His choice to spend his own money meant that he was not forcing anyone to do his bidding or pay his way, and his choice to hire the private company helps that industry flourish, seeing others consider entering the market, which increases competition and decreases costs.
In a completely contrary fashion, the scatterbrained collectivist system sees disparate interests with different views about what “protection” is bash their heads and fight over how much should be spent, whose money will be taken to what extent, and who will write up the excuse notes when the system fails.
Private companies that fail will not stay in business long, but the same cannot be said for the mandate-based, tax-based, unionized government system. And the astounding thing about the difference could be the bald-faced way that the politically connected, who get their money through the force of government, deride the people who handle services and needs voluntarily, without using force.
Both Bryan and McKinnor are allies of LA Mayor Karen Bass (D), who beat Caruso as she wound her way to office. Both are closely allied with the firefighter’s union, and both appear to dislike private initiative and the principles of freedom.
In fact, Holden reports that Bryan claimed this whopper:
“’Firefighting is a public good,’ the state lawmaker said. ‘It is a public resource. It is something that we all invest in and we all derive benefits from.’”
Which allows us to take away one final lesson, that being the fact that there is no such thing as a “public good.”
Valuation is subjective, so good only can be defined by each individual. Even one’s own perceptions of good, bad, better, and best, fluctuate day to day, so attempts to tell each of us how WE might value something are presumptuous and insulting. They also destroy private calculation and the price system that we create when we willingly buy something and place a price on it, letting others see what is popular and what is not, letting others allocate resources or pull them away.
The word “public” negates each individual, it collectivizes your individual will and subsumes it, subjugating it to the will of the gang, in this case, politicians who claim they know what is good for you.
Caruso was right about the fire risks, and he was right to hire private protection.
No one has a right to force someone else to pay for his own protection. That is a philosophical truism which stands through the ages.
But politicians in California not only think they can take people’s money to fund their provably horrendous fire and water management systems, they think they can erect barriers to private enterprise that can provide flourishing, peaceful alternatives.