Why Are Firefighting Services Usually Provided by the Government and Not by Private Firms?

Budgets have played a major role in fire departments all over the world. In the past couple of years, fire department budgets have been in the headlines quite frequently. This is especially true in Florida, where there has been much controversy in the proposal and passing of Amendment 1, in January 2008. The passing of this amendment has left many counties and cities in Florida having to cut budgets across the board, which includes the fire and EMS departments. Many departments are facing a substantial loss in their fiscal year budget which could translate

To better understand the background of the contrasting views, we must look at how the fire service has developed around

Volunteer fire departments everywhere have staffing problems. If you take a drive past any fire department you will probably see a volunteers needed sign. A fire chief in Pennsylvania stated “I would like to have a greater turnout of firefighters on scene than what we currently have,” he said. “We have a lack of volunteers who are able to respond during daytime hours” (Shawgo, 2014, p. 17). There are several reason that there is not as good of a turnout as there used to be. Back in the 1970s and 1980s the thing to do in town was to hang out at the fire house. There was not as much going on as there is today. People today want to spend more time with their family and go out to the movies or mini golfing, things that family’s did not do as much back in the day. The average amount of training that a volunteer must go through is about 130 hours. Most people see that as too much time to sacrifice. Also, in today’s economy many people work a second or even third job in order to make ends meet. There are also more single parent households then there used to be, which does not allow for hardly any time to volunteer. Due to the reasons stated above it is very difficult to properly staff fire trucks in volunteer departments. The average age of members continues to increase. The few people left who still find time to volunteer often work a regular job during the day, which makes day time emergency calls even harder to respond to with proper staffing. The typical fire truck holds 6

The definition of public goods is: A public good is an item consumed by society as a whole and not necessarily by an individual consumer. Public goods are financed by tax revenues. All public goods must be consumed

Public goods are one of the main types of market failures that the government often has the ability to solve. Public goods such as medical, education, and employments can be seen as market failures. An example of a public good would the post office. The government controls the majority of shipping and package delivery but also the ability to solve the problem of lost budgets annually and the increasing rates of shipping. The post office is a necessity and is failing based on the lost revenue every year. The post office is also losing its labor supply based on the loss income and profit. The government can allow for the post office to become publicly run where a profit can be made and allow for an oligopoly to keep prices low with removed competition. The government has the option of stepping out of the market and allowing it to grow within a free market system.

3. (TCO 1) Are the goods that businesses offer for "free" to consumers also free to society?

Publicness or public quality of public service, the recent transition toward a market driven mode

Negative externalities are detrimental third-party effects caused by the production and/or consumption of a good. A public good is a good provided free of charge to the consumer, by the government. A public good is non-excludable and non-rivalrous. A merit good is a good that gives positive externalities upon production and/or consumption. A merit good is non-excludable, yet rivalrous.

Private businesses could not sell national defense to citizens and continue to stay in business, therefore is considered to be a public good. Selling defense services to those who are willing to pay for it and protecting them and not protecting those who refuse to contribute paying, could not be possible by any means. These individuals are considered as "free riders," which will not generally pay for something they can get free. That is the foremost reason national defense must be administered by the government and paid for through taxes.

In assessing arrangements to solve the "problem" of free riding, economists claim to be guided by the principle of Pareto efficiency. That is, they claim to put forward arrangements that will make at least some people better off without any detriment to others, in terms of their own happiness. If they are serious about this efficiency criterion then any proposed arrangement must surely accord with the preferences of the people involved, as revealed through their actual behaviour. It follows that the ultimate test of any allegedly Pareto-efficient arrangement must surely be to convince all of the parties affected that they are better off or at least, no worse off under the proposed arrangement. Indeed, the consent and agreement of all parties

I truly enjoyed reading the material for this week 's discussion. I found it fascinating to read how these people of passion were so revered as leaders. Something I found difficult while reading the stories of these various leaders was the details of what they did within their respective industries that made them successful. Although I recognize the importance of the details, I found myself continually fanaticizing about how the many different approaches would directly translate to the fire service. Because of the uniqueness of the fire service as an industry, I found it easier to relate to themes and concepts rather than the details. 'Strengths Based Leadership ' by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie For example Simon Cooper stated: "people create memories, not things. If we ask guests what color the carpet was in their guest room, they probably won 't know. The real value comes from the ladies and gentlemen (employees) who bring that hotel to life. Ten percent is the platform, but the rest is people. (Rath & Conchie, 2008, p. 43) As I read this I couldn 't help but think of the fact that our customers in the emergency response world (fire service) likely remember more about how we treat them than what uniform we wear or what kind of apparatus we arrive in, so long as we bring true caring and compassion to their bedside. In addition Cooper 's people over platform approach was obvious in this Rath & Conchie description: "then when he talked of the night-and-day difference that a

When the government gets involved and taxes goods and services, it raises revenue for the government, decreases the quantity of goods produced and consumed and therefore, both consumers and the producer of the good will pay, splitting the costs of the tax and leveling up with society’s.

However, I believe that with the help of special interest groups and advocates speaking with representatives that with enough movement the issue can be discussed. Another major issue that may arise once there is a requirement for departments to incorporate a health and wellness is compliance. However, I feel like this was a similar challenge that was a concern when NIMS was enforced to create interoperability. Like the NIMS implementation I believe that creating a more firefighter focused fire service will be supported by enough departments that it can be successful carried out. The last obstacle that may occur is funding grants for firefighter survival training. To overcome this challenge there may need to be a change of focus in funding opportunities in the emergency services to support the betterment of those serving the communities around the

[pic][pic]Finally, the beneficiary of the services provided by the public sector, is the general public. These goods and services are sometimes provided free and in other cases consumers have to pay a price. The goal

(ii) Government production at lower priceswe have a direct governmental influence on allocation because the government itself undertakes the responsibility of the production of the positive external good. supplies it at a lower price, in some cases free of charge