Going Public

Coming under fire for daring to dissent from tradition -- or so it seems to me -- it's time to go public. The hope is that by doing so, I can simultaneously spread the word and protect myself. To that end, this blog has been revamped, with related old posts consolidated under new pages. These include Fire Economics, Fitness, Problems, and Solutions.

The blog's title has been changed too, so that it matches the draft book these chapters were lifted from. Before long I hope to be researching and rewriting Clearing the Highlands into a much-improved Heroic Economy, but I need to deal with some flak first, and that's draining both energy and attention.

Since its become apparent that change will have to be driven from outside the fire service, I've begun a letter-writing campaign. The letters and lists of recipients can be found on the Letters page. The goal here is stimulate awareness of profit or political potential and let those market forces counteract the strength of the hero market. It occurs to me that the profit potential of fire service automation and re-structuring might provide an indirect measure of our current waste.

I plan on adding at least two more pages -- one for Evidence & Sources, and the other devoted to how Savings Estimates are arrived at. More later.

Check out the new page: A Vision. It's my attempt to look into the crystal ball. A combination of science fiction and cost & risk management, this is what self-imposed austerity looks like. This is how we shrink government, relieve tax pressure, and reduce public debt from the inside out. We must do it ourselves -- no politician can do it for us. This is government for the people, by the people. This is sustainability. This is how we reform our health-care system, rein in its costs and improve access to it. This is how we stimulate engineers to design better systems, better apparatus, and finally maybe even a universal airpack fitting. This is how we stop complaining about our youth and start employing their strengths. This is what strategic organizational re-engineering is all about. This is service ethic in practice: self-sacrifice that trades jobs, not lives, for the public good. This is how we’ll stop being two centuries of tradition unimpeded by progress and start moving a proud service forward in keeping with its best traditions.