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Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

tomscott.com

381–390 of 440 posts

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The motivations of people who joined Jan 6 are very simple: they thought they had been disenfranchised because of unprecedented anomalies during vote counting on election day, which their opposition made no effort to explain.

Literally dozens of articles were written about a red mirage and how the mail in vote which would be counted later, would skew towards the democrats.

[deleted]

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#382

This reminds me of when I learned there was no such thing as "The Children's Crusade". As my history professor put it, "going to the Holy Land was an incredibly expensive endeavour reserved for a very few. There's no way anyone was going to waste it on young, inexperienced children". Nearly every source we had saying that the crusade involved children came much later, after a few writers referred to the same source w…

? The whole of medieval europe swarms with stories of surplus children send to fend for themselves as servants and workers abroad. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwabenkinder Whole areas exported there population as soldiers, mercenaries and mining people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard Most of them were like the taliban in afghanistan, interlocked in eternal holy wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirt…

Check out the Wikipedia page to get a summary of the children’s crusade if you haven’t already. It was more akin to a religious-revival/evangelist movement than a military expedition afaict. Still your point stands, very plausible for young teens to be heavily involved in such things.

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#383

Even with this information included. I think the moral of the story is America has some very serious third-world problems. The reason things like this go on in America and not in any other developed country is that Americans just accept it. "They didn't pay, so they die." Here is how much they accept it, firefighters literally stood and watched a building burn down instead of playing with their toys. Not only that, t…

This is a case of a family who chose to live on unincorporated land because they wanted less government protection. It's a severe edge case involving very individual circumstances. You can't make any conclusions about the US from this.

I wasn't able to find it again but there also people in Germany who lack health insurance due to an inability to pay and must rely on charity clinics. These are mostly elderly Germans who paid into a private system, foregoing the public system, and eventually lost health insurance after their earnings declined. It's just the US that has these "third world problems."

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your categorization of this as a US issue,not a "3rd world" issue. As an ex fireman, in a so-called "3rd world" [1] country, we often got involved in fires "beyond our juristriction". Our job was to put fires out, not worry about insurance or legal liability etc. We were never reprimanded for doing so, and there was never a suggestion of anything other than gratitude. [1] 3rd world was originally the ter…

But it’s not “money rules everything.” Americans spend tremendous amounts of public money on, for example, extending the life of old people a few months. American social security is quite generous compared to other countries. Instead in Americans are extremely rigid about rules and norms. You never just “not worry” about “legal liability.” It’s a country where criminals can sue you if they injure themselves robbing y…

> Americans spend tremendous amounts of public money on, for example, extending the life of old people a few months.

Medicaid is extremely stringent when it comes to income and asset thresholds for nursing homes (and in many states receiving social security can effectively disqualify you from Medicaid, even though Medicaid would be more helpful). So in many cases that public money is only applied once hospitals and nursing home facilities have plundered the estate of the soon-to-be deceased until the debt is paid or there is nothing left. Something as routine as old age will often wipe out any potential generational wealth building in all but the upper class.

I bring this up because I think this actually goes back to the original argument in the US that money does, in fact, rule everything. That's ultimately why Americans don't question their legal frameworks-- that's what guarantees the liabilities and debts and who keeps what in the end, not the other way around.

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And here we are in modern times where we do, indeed, let buildings burn. The linked article aside, letting buildings burn down is in fact standard procedure for fire fighters. A sufficiently dense fire is extremely hard to stop as long as it can fuel itself and a controlled burn down is often the only reasonable way to end a fire. It's not like anything would be recoverable in any case.

I would hope, at least, that firefighters would always prioritize saving lives over saving property.

Yes. And these duties can easily conflict (in which case preservation of life always has priority). Another reason to let a house burn is because there are still firefighters in there, searching for people. The clothing of firefighters (at least the Nomex based used here) is extremely good at insulating from heat, but looses almost all protection the moment it gets wet, as the water starts boiling. Obviously that is extremely dangerous for the wearer.

This means that often saving lives and saving property can not be done simultaneously. Some time ago here there was a report about house ownwers getting upset at firefighters for just standing around "doing nothing", while their property burned, which happened exactly for the reason outlined above.

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#387
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Right, that's why our elections always come down to a 50.001% majority, because if you let the majorities be bigger it's more expensive to turn them into a minority when they turn against you.

Yes, just a small nuance:

> always come down to a 50.001% majority

It's not a person-vote-majority, but some sort of aggregate. Due to the aggregation scheme it becomes even easier to manipulate/game with "key counties" and "key states". A party does not even need to convince the general population anymore, but just focus on a tiny fraction.

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#388

Even with this information included. I think the moral of the story is America has some very serious third-world problems. The reason things like this go on in America and not in any other developed country is that Americans just accept it. "They didn't pay, so they die." Here is how much they accept it, firefighters literally stood and watched a building burn down instead of playing with their toys. Not only that, t…

> I think the moral of the story is America has some very serious third-world problems. The reason things like this go on in America and not in any other developed country is that Americans just accept it. "They didn't pay, so they die." Here is how much they accept it, firefighters literally stood and watched a building burn down instead of playing with their toys. Not only that, the fire department refused to accep…

> Even Americans aren't so tribal as to hold grudges between towns and adjacent unincorporated land.

They aren't? Cuz I'm seeing this exact thing every day on my local Nextdoor.

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#389
post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money can be exchanged for goods and services. If you want your house extinguished then pay for it.

In developed countries that’s where our tax dollars go.

Unfortunately people seem to equate the government stealing half your money to being developed. When the correct word should be "despite".

Re: Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?

#390
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As my history professor put it, "going to the Holy Land was an incredibly expensive endeavour reserved for a very few. There's no way anyone was going to waste it on young, inexperienced children". While a Crusade made up primarily of children is not realistic. The 'People's Crusade' was a thing. During the first Crusade 40 thousand or so poor peasants and various religious fanatics including many women and childre…

if I recall correctly most of them were enslaved even before making it to the Holy Land.

Yeah, they only got as far as Nicaea.
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