There was no such thing as public fire coverge. Fire coverage used to consist of households nailing their insurancs coverage to the outside of the house.
To be fair, streets used to “organise” coverage because fireservices used to put out fires NEXT to the insured house as WELL AS the insured house.
By paying for different insurance at either end of the street many communities saved money.

Goodness, America couldn’t save money by paying for healthcare “Socialy” could it!?

With all due respect, that is just nuts. NONE of the things you mention started out as public functions, and many of them still aren’t (volunteer firemen? Toll roads? Electricity and water are not public everywhere, though they ARE usually monopolies. And the services you get compared to the taxes you pay are a pittance. The rest is consumed in waste and back-scratching. So no, I don’t think “the community” should be allowed to put a gun in my snoot and tell me “pay up or else”.

These things arent decided on a whim. Who decides how much firefighters are paid? Is it in line with the private sector? There isn’t one? So they are probably paid 30 million dollars each time they show up for a shift.

Of course not. People in the “socialist” sector are paid according to the job they do, the skills they have and the experience they bring like anyone in the private sector.

You also seem to claim that a private hospital would go out of business by overpricing itself. With many millions of Americans unable to afford even basic healthcare and millions more struggling to meet healthcare costs it is quite obvious that private healthcare simply prices itself lucrative.

Socialised healthcare is, IMO, about agreeing as a community that healthcare, like education, like policing, like firecoverage, like roads, like electricity, like water, is something that everyone is entitled to as a basic right of paying taxes towards a government that funds it.

Yes, we should get angry when that government pays $18 million for a website or $50 million for a heart transplant. It should spend our money effectivly but it should spend it fairly for all.

Stand aside and let it fall!

Authentic prices only come into existance in a voluntary exchange, and exchanges are only possible between two private property owners.

If resources are collectively owned as they are under socialism, they are merely shuffled around by bureaucratic whims. No exchanges of value for value take place. Thus, it is impossible for them to calculate the value to society of any particular thing. A website is worth $18 million? Sure! Why not? Your heart transplant will be $30 million? Sounds about right to Bureaucrat Steve at that desk over there, so heck–why not?

Private hospitals can lose business for making their services unaffordable. Governments can. If push comes to shove, they can just print the money to cover their shortfalls! No consumer need be served.

For a couple million $, the .bmps will be hastily converted to .jpegs, although animated .gifs will cost extra.

The only thing was there was no project going on. The road was in good shape, there were no orange barrels or cones, nothing. Just a sign.