Easy to be superficially critical of this trend. In our area, every community had a volunteer fire department. When the alarm rang, you dropped what you were doing to fight the fire. For a whole host of reasons, this model is not workable any longer.
That doesn’t mean as citizens we shouldn’t be keeping track of how our money is spent.
I’m all for volunteer fire brigades. Our town has one. This is NOT big government - this is citizens taking care of their own.
Yet ours, and all others, are now having trouble finding volunteers.
Ironically, 50 years ago, when all able-bodied men worked, the volunteer spots in our town’s brigade were all full.
Now the USA has 90 million adults out of the work-force, and not looking for jobs either, yet volunteer fire brigades can’t find enough people to fill their ranks.
More destruction caused by the welfare state.