Writing in yesterday’s Washington Post, the great law and econ scholar Fred McChesney – who is also an historian of firefighting – asks why is the number of firefighters growing while the number of fires is shrinking. (Hint: public-sector labor unions here, as elsewhere, successfully seek rents.) A slice:
But oddly, as the number of fires has dropped, the ranks of firefighters have continued to grow — significantly. There are half as many fires as there were 30 years ago, but about 50 percent more people are paid to fight them.
The problem, IMHO, is “stat inflation” – more and more “instances” and claims that more and more is needed to handle them. It is only when one looks into the details
of what an “instance” really is, it turns out to be similar to that other Democrat bastion, Planned Parenthood. There, an abortion is a “service”. Handing someone an aspirin tab is also “a service”.
It’s all about the unbundling and equivocating that this thing is just like another. They depend on that level of Trust with which the public imbues them. Unfortunately, trust can be twisted and distorted.
(H/T: Café Hayek)
