Existential Angst wrote:

They collect 20-30% of your effing salary, of course they owe you
something -- a LOT, in fact.
The real Q is What and How Much. And, of course, to whom.

Er, no. Transfer payments go to those who don't HAVE a salary.


Altho, I'm increasingly Preppie.... I mean, Prepper.
Ahm thinkin, if every house had a sprinkler system, we wouldn't need
fire depts, where 3/4 of the high-salaried time is spent cooking,
lifting weights, and polishing knobs... I mean, big red fire engines.

You paint with too broad a brush. Eighty-five percent of firefighters are
volunteers.


If all tax paying citizens with clean records had guns (gummint
supplied?? lol), we wouldn't need police depts, either.
Mebbe a few detectives, just to make sure citizen-applied justice --
I mean, self-defense -- was really self-defense.... lol

Here's an interesting concept: The courts have held that at least one
constitutional right must be supplied by the government! If you cannot
afford a lawyer, the state must provide one at no cost to you.

That said, I'm of the opinion that, in the name of consistency, that the
government should supply a firearm to all those who cannot afford one! Well,
at least one to each household.

Here's where private enterprise can step in. What if an apartment house
billed its offerings as "... complete with washer, dryer, cable TV, and one
Glock 17 per unit..."?


NYC's budget for the police/fire dept exceeds the GDP of quite a few
nations, and proly the entire budget of some US states.

And NYC is a generally safe place. 'Course some credit the philosophy of
Guiliana rather than the sheer numbers of cops and firefighters...

Even so, I'll bet there are FAR MORE private "security guards" in NYC than
cops.