How do you feel about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West hiring private firefighters? (1 Viewer)

[Josie]

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...rivate-firefighters-while-the-rest-of-us-burn

https://www.aol.com/article/enterta...-criticized-for-hiring-private-team/23589421/

Do you feel that "there is something dystopian about it"? Should they be criticized or not? What say you?
"There's something dystopian about Kim Kardashian secretly hiring private firefighters for her multi-million dollar mansion while publicly garnering sympathy as a 'victim' of the fires when people are dying and incarcerated ppl are forced to fight fires," writer Muqing M. Zhang wrote on Twitter. "It’s as if these natural disasters caused by climate change are merely publicity opportunities for these wealthy elite -- whose sickening amount of wealth means they live as an elite removed from the suffering of the everyday people who actually bear the brunt of these catastrophes."

"These disasters demonstrate that environmental issues are class inequality issues," she went on. "While the rich elite can skate by unscathed, poor people and people of color are the ones who will really bear the brunt of not just this fire but future climate change/environmental disasters."

"This weekend the entire town of Paradise, CA was incinerated," someone else wrote. "But this wealthy neighborhood was able to buy itself protection from the flames. This is what climate change will look like under neoliberalism."
Not everyone criticized Kim and Kanye for their move, however.
"Resources are meant to be utilized when needed," someone wrote in Kimye's defense. "She and her family members' various Twitter accounts request donations for the CA Fire Foundation. When this is all settled, they'll likely use their platforms to produce some of the top fundraising campaigns to help others."

"Those fire fighters held her WHOLE neighborhood," another person tweeted. "But yea go ahead and cherry pick what you want to hear. But also. When did it become her responsibility to protect all of California???"

 

[ModerationNow!]

This is typical of wealthy people, and I'm not so sure that any of us would do it differently if we had hundreds of millions of dollars. I've never even heard of, or considered the idea of paying for private fire fighters to give your property a better chance of surviving the blaze. As long as the regular fire fighters weren't negatively affected in any way by the presence of uhm, "private firemen", I guess it's not a big problem. It would actually be a bonus of the private firemen were able to lessen the workload or reduce the spread of fire, by freeing up regular firemen to fight fires elsewhere.

Personally I wish both Kim and Kanye would buy a private island and move there, after adopting a zero-mass communications lifestyle. That way I'd never have to hear about them again! Maybe they can take the rest of their incredibly boorish family with them, including Brenda, Beatrice, Blair, Bridgett, or whatever the hell Bruce is calling HERself these days!

 

[bmr528]

I have no problem with what they did... It's their money, Their home... I bet the Insurance company is thrilled they did it..

djl

 

[Acadia]

Newsflash! They have more money than God and that isn't the first or last privilege that they will have that I and 99% of Americans will never have.
I'm not a big fan of either, but they are human-parents with children. It is their HOME.

 

[Deuce]

I mean it's not like they're stealing them from other firefighting units.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

I have zero problems with this. First, it also saved other nearby houses, but even if it didn’t, there is no downside because if anything it was one less house the public fire fighters had to worry about.

It is no different than hiring private security.

Now, when I lived in Cambodia fire fighters are paid when they show up to the fire by the home owner. If multiple homes are on fire, then the fire fighters help the highest bidder first. Now THAT would be an issue.