The gathering storm (Roger Ebert Communist Party Application)

Ebert Blog ^ | 2/24/2010 | Roger Ebert

[Tolsti2]

Sometimes in the noise of the news there will be a single item that pops out with clarity. That happened when I heard about Tracy, California, which is charging $300 every time the fire department answers an emergency call that doesn't involve a fire.

That summons up not only the prospect of little Susie's kitten being left to die up in the tree, but also of her dad who has just collapsed with an asthma attack. One citizen said if her husband had a heart attack, she'd set her kitchen table on fire to dodge the fee. To be sure, you can buy an annual package deal for $48, which makes sense if you average more than one emergency call every six years. I'm not sure if that's $48 for one non-fire call, or if you get unlimited calling. Tracy (population 81,714) is not the only town considering charging for emergency services. So is Los Angeles.

Of course, the extra fee will be paid by your insurance company, right? Not a chance. Poor folks may have to look twice at a family member writhing on the floor and ask, "Are you really $300 worth of sick?" That's why we all consider it more or less our right to pick up the phone and dial 911. Of course since the whole community shares the cost of the emergency call, that's socialism, right?

[Tolsti2]

This is perhaps his most communist posting yet. The other week he was generating sympathy for being such a sick mess, but now he's turned on the 'the little people don't know what's best for them' talk. Nasty stuff.

[ModelBreaker]

Don’t see why charging is so outrageous. More than 90% of 911 calls are NOT emergencies. Mostly silly stuff. I pay taxes. Why should I subsidize people who make stupid 911 calls? The $48 a year sounds like a good and not unreasonable deal.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Maybe if California didn’t fritter away the taxpayer’s money on stupid social programs, they’d have enough money to pay for basic government services.

[KoRn]

He’d probably be much happier with life and everything else if he’d just put a pistol in his mouth.

[Tolsti2]

Read the whole thing, the 911 stuff is the tip of the iceberg.

[FormerACLUmember]

Ravings of a sick, sick man.

[sueuprising]

“More than 90% of 911 calls are NOT emergencies”
I lived in Queens, NY for a year in the late ‘80s. I remember I had to go to the ER and waited nearly 5 hours as time and time again 911 ambulances brought in mostly black individuals who had minor ailments. I complained about it and was told by some people waiting that this was a common thing in the city. Because they knew they would be seen first if they arrived in an ambulance frivolous calls to 911 were made by people not really so sick that it required emergency attention. So I can only assume Chicago is experiencing the same thing and to stop it put a surcharge on it. Since when is Roger Ebert an expert on anything? It is disgusting how celebrities monopolize space to jabber about things they know nothing about.

[greeneyes]

Well, we used to have a voluteer fire department. You had to buy a $25 sticker (probably $60 in today’s dollars), and post it on the house.

If the fire truck showed up, they would let your house burn down, if you did not have a sticker. This was a shock to me. My hometown volunteer fire department always helped everyone, even other counties and cities.

So the county got together and voted to form a fire protection district, paid for with property taxes, but no government honcho cramed it down our throats, so I always felt that was a legitimate public service.

Considering I have heard about 911 calls that came in from McDonald’s drive thru cause the cashier would not do what a customer wanted, maybe a user fee is appropriate. Did they allow the people to vote on it? If not, they should.

[Tolsti2]

He only uses the 911 stuff as a springboard to get to his main ideas which are:

“We’re in for some hard times. We need to pull in our belts, pay more taxes, demand more value for our taxes, and say no to an ideology that requires converting our health money into corporate profits.”

[CzarChasm]

Dear Ebert Dumbass,

If you have a medical emergency, don't call the fire department.

[greeneyes]

Read my lips: NO NEW TAXES

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Apparently there will be no 911 charge in Tracy:

"No one will be charged just for dialing 911. Tracy Mayor Brent Ives faulted poor media reporting that led to the confusion and unnecessary national media attention.

"People want to think it's a 911 fee, and it's not," Ives said.

What the Tracy City Council passed last year and plans to start in June is not a 911 fee, said Churchill. No one will be charged for calling the emergency number.

There will be a charge, however, for those who call for and get medical attention from a fire department paramedic _ who often arrive on scene before an ambulance.

The fee begins in June and is $300 for residents. Most private insurance will pick up the tab, but Medi-Cal and Medicaid will not, Campbell said. There is no fee if the patient dies."

[ModelBreaker]

“Read the whole thing, the 911 stuff is the tip of the iceberg.”

That would make it a very big iceberg.

[Nepeta]

Sometimes the people making the 911 calls are not the same ones involved in the problem. There are so many accidents on my street that I no longer waste time going to first look--I call 911 when I hear the crash to save a few seconds to dispatch help. The street doesn't look like a disaster magnet, but it is.

If I see a problem at a neighbor's house, I will call. There are several of us on this street who actually know each other and pay attention to what goes on beyond our own yards. We're all keeping an eye on the house of a couple now in Florida.

[denydenydeny]

Ebert’s point makes no sense. It’s not capitalism when a government that is otherwise fully funded by taxpayers charges money for services. Just the opposite.

[Publius6961]

One citizen said if her husband had a heart attack, she'd set her kitchen table on fire to dodge the fee.

I think I was in my mid-teens when I read something I have never forgotten; and it has been repeatedly confirmed all my life:

There is nothing that the mind of man can devise, that the mind of man can't circumvent.

Creative and effective chess move.

Check.

Fortunately, the only permanent countermove for the mindless bureaucracy is Totalitarianism.

Yeah. Like that will fly in the U.S. of A.

[Publius6961]

Sometimes in the noise of the news there will be a single item that pops out with clarity. That happened when I heard about Tracy, California, which is charging $300 every time the fire department answers an emergency call that doesn't involve a fire.

There is arrogant stupidity, and then there's monumental arrogant stupidity.

Elect the ignorant to any position of political leadership and power, from City Council to President, and you always eventually get a government of expediency and oppression.

The perfect example is the progression of the loss of personal freedom and individual choice over our own lives : you cannot smoke without paying enormous tribute to the State. Which is legally justified by arguing, quite logically, that if the state is obligated to try to keep you alive, it's only fair to non-smoking taxpayers to force smokers to pay enormous amounts for the privilege.

Sounds great, and "fair," until you stop and ask yourself, "Wait a minute... who decided that the State is obligated to keep the smoker alive when she gets cancer?

Why... the State decided.

Moving right along...
Who decided that fire engines must always respond to all medical emergencies?

I'll let the reader figure that one out.

[Tolsti2]

I hope you read the whole thing, which segues from 911 calls to a marxist dialectic argument for full communism, more or less. He particularly attacks ‘unearned income’. He's very, very near about talking about surplus value and other marxist terms in this one.

[ReignOfError]

Who decided that fire engines must always respond to all medical emergencies?

In most places, the protocol is to dispatch whomever can get there first. There are more fire engines than there are ambulances. Firefighters are trained as first responders -- they can evaluate and stabilize, and treat some injuries, but can't administer drugs, start an IV or transport patients to the hospital.

The idea is to get someone trained on site as soon as possible. In many cases, the firefighter can handle the situation without the paramedics; if not, they have a head start when the ambulance arrives.