In the situation before us a property owner elected not to pay for firefighting services and lost his property as a result. Many suggest the only moral solution is to levy taxes to support firefighting services. My question is, what makes this solution moral? Why is the morality of the firefighters being questioned and not the morality of the homeowner?
1) Let's start with the "levy taxes to support firefighting services" case. Taxes are oft compared to "proper dues for living in a civilized society", indeed the homeowner is legally obligated to pay them. If he does not pay his property taxes the government will issue a tax lien [1] on his property which may lead to foreclosure [2]. With a tax lien the owner has the option of paying the delinquent taxes (plus extra penalties, interest, etc.) to avoid foreclosure. Does the legal obligation of taxation create a moral obligation to pay? Since the county would have it's own fire department it is legally required to respond to fires. Does the legal obligation create a moral obligation to respond?
2) Next we have the case as presented in the article. Since the owner and his fellow citizens elected not to levy taxes there is no county fire department. They have the option to purchase firefighting services from an adjacent city. In the absence of a legal obligation, is the owner under any moral obligation to purchase these fire services? Since the firefighters are not legally obligated to fight the fire, are they morally obligated to fight the fire?
3) Now consider a third case. Since the owner and his fellow citizens elected not to levy taxes there is no county fire department. The adjacent city does NOT offer to extend firefighting services. In the absence of opportunity in addition to legal obligation, is there any moral obligation to invest in firefighting services of some kind? (In other words, does living in a community create a sufficient moral obligation to invest in firefighting services in some form?) Since the firefighters are not legally obligated to fight the fire outside their charter / jurisdiction, are they morally obligated to fight the fire?
My contention is that if the owner is morally obligated to pay a tax that supports firefighting services, then he has the same moral obligation to purchase firefighting services offered via an annual fee. Conversely if the firefighters are not morally obligated to fight fires outside their charter / jurisdiction, then they are not morally obligated to fight fires of non-payers.
Lastly, supporters of a tax scheme seem to consider this the only alternative. The main issue it seems is the city fire department refused to "spot price" it's services. Establishing the payment system ahead of time as, "$75 a year, or $15,000 per response" ("spot price" may not need to be that high, I have no idea what a reasonable cost estimate of firefighting services plus free rider diminishing overhead would be) would answer the questions of "who has authority to negotiate?" and "what if the owner isn't around to negotiate?". In order to address collections we can look to the tax supporters. By creating a firefighter's lien (akin to a mechanic's lien [3]) the fire department can be secure in their knowledge that their "spot price" will be paid. The fire department is "creating" value by saving the house similar to the way a contractor adds value to the property. A firefighter's lien would ensure the fire department collects it's share of the value added (up to it's "spot price" for response). This also addresses questions of "how can the fire department be sure the person will pay?" and "what if the fire department screwed up their records?" The firefighter's lien would provide the fire department a tool so they can reasonably provide the firefighting service in advance of payment. The firefighter's lien would carry the same sort of penalties as the tax lien in the first scenario. The fact that the local governments failed to implement these solutions is not an indictment of conservative / libertarian / "free market" / "opt out" ideology.
J
[1]
Tax lien - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[2]
Tax deed sale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[3]
Mechanic's lien - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia