A few weeks ago there was small fire in the elevator shaft of my office building. Thankfully, the fire department, staffed with volunteers, arrived literally minutes after the alarm sounded and quickly put out the fire. Since then, however, I’ve been pondering a basic economic question: What if the fire department was owned by a profit-maximizing private company whose CEO needed to earn millions in pay every year. Would service be as quick? Would it be affordable? How would society fare when every fire was handled by a private company eager to “burn” a hole in your pocket?

What I find interesting is that capitalist die hards, and Market purists seem to have no problem with our current system of public service fire departments, but yet cry socialism at the mere suggestion of removing decisions of life and death issues from the hands of a bunch of greedy professionals working at insurance companies and other healthcare businesses.

Why is that as a society we seem to function very well with various public services, like fire and police departments, that provide for a safer society, but when it comes to protecting our individual health and the health of our families, we feel obligated to devise a system that relies on profiteering, and institutes practices that can at best be described as completely barbaric?