Privatized disaster service: read and weep

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2204504,00.html
<snip>
I used to worry that the US was in the grip of extremists who sincerely believed the Apocalypse was coming and that they and their friends would be airlifted to heavenly safety. I have since reconsidered. The country is indeed in the grip of extremists who are determined to act out the biblical climax - the saving of the chosen and the burning of the masses - but without any divine intervention. Heaven can wait. Thanks to the booming business of privatised disaster services, we're getting the Rapture right here on earth.

Just look at what is happening in southern California. Even as wildfires devoured whole swaths of the region, some homes in the heart of the inferno were left intact, as if saved by a higher power. But it wasn't the hand of God; in several cases it was the handiwork of Firebreak Spray Systems. Firebreak is a special service offered to customers of insurance giant American International Group - but only if they happen to live in the wealthiest zip codes in the country. Members of the company's Private Client Group pay an average of $19,000 to have their homes sprayed with fire retardant. During the fires, the "mobile units", racing around in firetrucks, even extinguished fires for their clients.

Like so many private disaster companies, Sovereign Deed is selling escape from climate change and the failed state - by touting the security clearance and connections its executives amassed while working for that same state. So Mills, speaking recently in Pellston, explained: "The reality of Fema is that it has no infrastructure, and a lot of our National Guard is elsewhere." Sovereign Deed, on the other hand, claims to have "direct access and special arrangements with several national and international information centres. These proprietary arrangements allow our emergency operations centre to ... give our members that critical head start in times of crisis". In this secular version of the Rapture, God's hand is unnecessary. Not when you have retired CIA agents and ex-special forces lifting the chosen to safety - no need to pray, just pay. And who needs a celestial New Jerusalem when you can have Pellston, with its flexible local politicians and its surprisingly modern regional airport?

[bullimiami]

1. isnt it obvious why republicans underfund every social and infrastructure service.

not enough profit in it.

[madokie]

4. sure because they themselves don't need any of the one we do

and the ones they want and think they need adds to our strife

[lonestarnot]

2. Payistan not Pelliston.

[flashl]

3. No surprise here

another open secret, everything is based on your zipcode i.e. insurance rates.

[malaise]

5. I had no idea this was going on

but I'm not surprised either.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

6. I saw a segment on the news about this fire retardant

It can be sprayed on before fire season and lasts for quite a while. If insurance companies don't want to pay out big bucks for claims, I don't see a problem with this.

On the other hand, while watching that news segment, I couldn't help but wonder what that spray was doing to the environment. I don't think I'd want to live in a house that has been completely chemically hosed down! I wonder how much that has been studied.

I do agree that we need more public fire fighting units. The privatizing thing sucks.

[izquierdista]

7. Fire retardant chemistry

Many common formulations use ammonium phosphate along with something to increase the viscosity of water-based solutions, like solubilized starch. The environmental upside of this is that ammonium phosphate is an excellent plant fertilizer as it washes off and leaches into the soil. The one precaution that you want to follow, as is the case with all phosphates, is that you don't want large amounts leaching quickly into watersheds. If the starch component can be made to degrade over a period of months, even a house on the lakeside should have a manageable amount of phosphorous run-off.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

9. Thanks for that info

It's definitely something I know nothing about. :)

[NashVegas]

8. I've Been Saying for Years Now

The reason why the rich are doing everything they can to gather their billions is so they'll be able to afford to shuttle themselves out of here, into wherever the new space colony is, when the shit hits the fans.