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When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

nytimes.com

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Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#121

Post by simtel20 »

qSP7n2cupP8iIpM wrote: post #120
CPLX wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have lived in NYC for 17 years and you are the first person I have heard use the term sidewalk shed.

Here it is used by the New York Times, described as "ubiquitous": http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/nyregion/the-sidewalk-shed... The New York Times has lived in NYC for over 160 years.

Perhaps it is familiar to newspapers and people in public service? As a lifetime NYC resident, I'd like to add a data point: I am familiar with the sight, but I have never heard the term before.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#122

Post by HarryHirsch »

TruthAndDare wrote: post #41
HarryHirsch wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany, as far as I know, towns are mandated to have a fire service. Either the town raises a volunteer firefighter force, or the county will levy taxes and put a force in for the town. There's something to be said for a functioning civil service, not every issue has to be fought over every year in city council, and the only one who benefits are politicians seeking exposure.

OK, but what does it have to do with my comment?

What I'm trying to say is that the private-equity model isn't an inevitable outcome. It all depends on the legal and cultural environment.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#123

Post by ciq_steve »

jzwinck wrote: post #16

In the US a lot of us grew up with the idea that when something really bad was happening you would dial 911 and people would appear very soon to help you. I don't know whether this myth was ever true, but it certainly is not true today. I have called 911 or its equivalent more than a dozen times on three continents. No magic helping people appear within five minutes. Or ten. Usually not twenty either. Sometimes not a…

A few days ago the car I was in was robbed while we were driving in Chicago. I immediately called 911. They said they'd send someone so I told them where to find the driver. They called me back 20 minutes later and said they were not coming and that such a crime could be reported by phone only. The driver's phone had been stolen. - As a former Chicago resident I can say this is par for the course, in large part because that type of theft is extremely common. As a general rule you cannot leave anything of value within site in your car or it will probably be gone by sunrise.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#124

Post by ubernostrum »

pravda wrote: post #116
nkrisc wrote: post #6

Privatization sounds great when you can afford your own private services. Otherwise, tough luck, pull on those bootstraps harder.

Whether you pay it directly, or thru property tax, how is there a difference? The difference is, if the firemen are government employees, they can vote themselves rich. http://www.publicsectorinc.org/2014/06/firefighter-pay-shows...

Much better for executives to vote themselves rich, like in a well-run privatized system, right?

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#125

Post by [deleted] »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #101
bluejekyll wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In San Francisco, if you dial 911 on a cell phone you get the CHP, not San Francisco police. Adds delay to the help getting there. There is real number you can dial instead, which I've stored in my phone and allows me to dial the SF 911 center directly. Luckily I haven't needed it for more than a brush fire. This might be true in other states as well.

In SF when you dial 911 it is a good solid five minutes before anyone picks up because there is first the TTY modem handshake and then a recorded message in English, Spanish, more than one kind of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and on and on.

[deleted]

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#126

Post by pravda »

ubernostrum wrote: post #124
pravda wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether you pay it directly, or thru property tax, how is there a difference? The difference is, if the firemen are government employees, they can vote themselves rich. http://www.publicsectorinc.org/2014/06/firefighter-pay-shows...

Much better for executives to vote themselves rich, like in a well-run privatized system, right?

That's the point. Private executives can't vote themselves rich. Well, they could, but how would they collect?

Government employees can use violence to steal from you.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#127

Post by ubernostrum »

pravda wrote: post #126
ubernostrum wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much better for executives to vote themselves rich, like in a well-run privatized system, right?

That's the point. Private executives can't vote themselves rich. Well, they could, but how would they collect? Government employees can use violence to steal from you.

You think executives of a private-sector corporation can't vote to give themselves high salaries or huge bonuses? Most of the time they don't even have to -- it's so ingrained in the culture now that it's just considered a cost of doing business to be robbed blind by the executive team.

And if you think a private corporation can't deploy violence, you probably have never in your life read anything about why we had a rise of labor unions in this country; companies used to be able to call on not only the government's army but also their own private armies to put down, via deadly force, anyone perceived as a threat to the company's profits.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#128

Post by cafard »

jzwinck wrote: post #16

In the US a lot of us grew up with the idea that when something really bad was happening you would dial 911 and people would appear very soon to help you. I don't know whether this myth was ever true, but it certainly is not true today. I have called 911 or its equivalent more than a dozen times on three continents. No magic helping people appear within five minutes. Or ten. Usually not twenty either. Sometimes not a…

I remember calling 911 exactly once, when I found that an elderly neighbor had fallen on his lawn, and was in distress, though not immediate danger. An ambulance arrived within 10 minutes, probably nearer 5 minutes.

My wife (among others) called 911 when neighbors were held up in front of their house across the was last December. The police were there in about 5 minutes. Somebody on the street called the police a couple of years ago upon hearing an explosion in one of the houses. The police were there very quickly, found a fire, and summoned the fire department, which also arrived quickly.

Be prepared to take care of myself? I am somewhat trained in rendering first aid, but have no experience in standing on a cherry-picker while operating a fire hose. I have discharged a firearm, but at no time recently, and don't think I would add to public safety by hunting armed robbers.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#129

Post by pravda »

ubernostrum wrote: post #127
pravda wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the point. Private executives can't vote themselves rich. Well, they could, but how would they collect? Government employees can use violence to steal from you.

You think executives of a private-sector corporation can't vote to give themselves high salaries or huge bonuses? Most of the time they don't even have to -- it's so ingrained in the culture now that it's just considered a cost of doing business to be robbed blind by the executive team. And if you think a private corporation can't deploy violence, you probably have never in your life read anything about why we had a…

>it's just considered a cost of doing business to be robbed blind by the executive team.

Who are they robbing? Shareholders! But shareholders choose to be shareholders. You don't like what the executives are up to, you can sell your shares.

> private armies to put down, via deadly force, anyone perceived as a threat to the company's profits.

Ok, now you are being inconsistent. You think it's wrong for executives to be paid above-market wages, but you think it acceptable for employees to be paid above-market wages. Every dollar paid to an employee above market wage comes from shareholders!

But none from taxpayers. All out of corporate profits.

Re: When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers

#130

Post by gozur88 »

refurb wrote: post #44
arcanus wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my hunch is it has roots in feelings of intellectual superiority As well as good old fashioned, 'fear of people with different values and culture than your own'

Reminds me of a guy I knew in San Francisco. He was talking to a friend of mine who grew up in Georgia and was Indian (South Asian). He starts off with "Wow! That must have be tough growing up as an Indian in Georgia! Those guys are so backward." My friend replies "Actually, I had a great childhood. Never had any problems being Indian. Georgia is a great place to grow up." Of course the guy from SF had never actually…

That's pretty normal. I hear people who've never been south of the Mason-Dixon bashing the South on a regular basis. They get all their information from coastal journalists. Who've never been there either.

These are the same people who would bristle if you said something bad about people in another country and say "How do you know? You can't understand a place by reading about it in the newspaper."

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