Comment on Hell yeah.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 day agoI’d really like to see the capitalist Fire Brigade, if only to see Terry Pratchett proven right once again.
Ankh-Morpork no longer had a fire brigade. The citizens had a rather disturbingly direct way of thinking at times, and it did not take long for people to see the rather obvious flaw in paying a group of people by the number of fires they put out. The penny really dropped shortly after Charcoal Tuesday.
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 day ago
The original capitalist fire brigade were local companies that a business owner or homeowner could pay to come and put out a fire. They were given a cast iron plaque, called a “Fire Mark,” to put on their building, next to the door. When the fire brigade showed up, and there was no Fire Mark, they’d just watch the building burn down, unless the owner paid immediately.
When cities decided that was a terrible system, those fire brigade companies morphed into the first insurance companies, and they’ve been parasites on our lives ever since.