A couple Fridays ago, I watched the show 20/20 with John Stossel and Elizabeth Vargas and I found myself thrilled with the media - a rare occasion! The theme for the hour-long show was "You Can't Even Talk About It" and it was basically discussing about 5-6 topics that are 'taboo' to talk about in our politically correct country. It was AWESOME for the mainstream media to broach the subjects that a lot of Americans are thinking about, but are too afraid to openly discuss because it 'sounds bad.'
I won't bore you with the entire list of things they talked about on the show (but you can take a look at them yourself at http://abcnews.go.com/2020), but one of them struck me and I wanted to jump up off the couch and yell "HELL YEAH!" (Iris - Extreme Lauri was out in FULL FORCE while I watched this show)
Basically, the story goes like this: Local 911 emergency services (ambulances, dispatchers, paramedics, EMTs, police, rescue equipment, helicopters, etc.) are supported by tax dollars from the residents in a particular community, city, state, etc. They are services that you pay for (usually most people are happy to pay for them so that they are available when/if they are needed) in order to have a safe, ready community to live in. Right?
Well, the story on 20/20 was in a Utah/Colorado mountainous area with deep rivers (the Colorado River, I think?). Anyway, this is a fairly unpopulated area as far as permanent, tax-paying residents go........however, there are MANY thrill-seeking rock-climbing, hang gliding and whitewater rafting enthusiasts that flock to that area to practice their daredevil skills (or lack thereof). What ends up happening is that these enthusiasts don't know what they're doing and then they get themselves in very precarious situations, requiring medical rescues. Some of them are very complicated, difficult and require a LOT of man hours and expensive equipment.
The problem is: the local taxpayers in these areas are tired of paying high taxes for emergency services in their area in order to support the idiocy of these thrill-seekers (who get rescued for free, then run home and think up their next trick). So some communities are starting to charge the victims for their rescue costs.
One guy that they followed (a true idiot, if you watched the show) had to be rescued because he was hiking and rockclimbing IN FLIP-FLOPS and had an accident and had to be rescued. The authorities in that area sent that guy a bill for $2,000 (even though we all know that it probably cost about ten times that for the helicopters, man hours and equipment to rescue him). The guy still hasn't paid the bill and has even been out there more times doing the same stupid stuff!
On a less dramatic scale, I heard on the radio a couple weeks ago that even in Dallas, they are starting to charge for emergency services if you are in need of them in Dallas, but aren't a resident of the city! And that's not just for reckless crazy stunts - that's for regular car accidents and typical city stuff! Now I think that's getting a little ridiculous - and it's probably bad for business/tourism and going downtown for entertainment. What if someone runs a red light in the city of Dallas and totals my car and injures me? Because I'm not a resident of the actual city of Dallas, then I have to pay a huge ambulance bill, even though the accident wasn't even my fault and I just happened to be in a different city than the one that I pay my emergency services taxes to?? WHAT?!
What are your thoughts on this subject???
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