counterpunch | Fires are raging everywhere in California these days, and firefighters are having enormous trouble keeping up. Chronically understaffed local fire departments simply don’t have the resources to handle act one of what climate change has in store for us.
California’s wealthy aren’t particularly worrying about that lack of
resources — because they have more than enough of their own. They can
afford to shell out
up to $25,000 per day for one of the private firefighting services that
are popping up in California wherever the rich call home.
In a deeply unequal America, none of this should surprise us. Public
services almost always take it on the chin in societies where wealth
starts furiously concentrating. Why should inequality have this impact? A
little incendiary parable — on tennis — might help us understand.
