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What if we made 911 into a voucher program. When signing up for a phone, you must pick a 911 provider. The cost is fixed, so you're not choosing based on savin

What if we made 911 into a voucher program. When signing up for a phone, you must pick a 911 provider. The cost is fixed, so you're not choosing based on saving money, but based on quality of service. Each provider would be audited and would publish response times, etc. You could choose the government program described in this article, or go with someone more technologically advanced.

dotBen 13y ago
Because the beneficiary of the 911 provider isn't likely to be you, it's the person who needs the emergency who probably can't come to the phone. If someone needs to call 911 for me, I want to know it's regulated and up to quality - not based on whether the person who happened to pick their provider actually bothered to research a good one, etc
- nostromo 13y ago
  Did the system described in the article sound like a good one to you? Mandated monopolies have a way of discouraging innovation and depressing quality.
  - Udo 13y ago
    Monopolies? 911 dispatch centers should really not be a battleground for competing commercial entities. They're a public service. You may disagree with the general idea of a public service, but it's really one of the very few areas where government can do (and frequently does) things for the good of everyone. Call centers might be bad sometimes regionally, but that doesn't mean they can't work in principle. For example, in my home country (Germany), there is a public dispatch system for all emergency services and after having had to use it repeatedly for a range of things from routine to disaster response, I have to say it works really well. And I wouldn't say Germany is exactly the paragon of efficiency when it comes to public services either. So with a little bit of political will, it's achievable - as it should be.
- acheron 13y ago
  Because if government bureaucrats "regulate" something that means it has to be good, right?
smutticus 13y ago
So your answer to too much government bureaucracy is to add another layer of government bureaucracy. Really?

dotBen 13y ago

Because the beneficiary of the 911 provider isn't likely to be you, it's the person who needs the emergency who probably can't come to the phone. If someone needs to call 911 for me, I want to know it's regulated and up to quality - not based on whether the person who happened to pick their provider actually bothered to research a good one, etc

nostromo 13y ago
Did the system described in the article sound like a good one to you? Mandated monopolies have a way of discouraging innovation and depressing quality.
- Udo 13y ago
  Monopolies? 911 dispatch centers should really not be a battleground for competing commercial entities. They're a public service. You may disagree with the general idea of a public service, but it's really one of the very few areas where government can do (and frequently does) things for the good of everyone. Call centers might be bad sometimes regionally, but that doesn't mean they can't work in principle. For example, in my home country (Germany), there is a public dispatch system for all emergency services and after having had to use it repeatedly for a range of things from routine to disaster response, I have to say it works really well. And I wouldn't say Germany is exactly the paragon of efficiency when it comes to public services either. So with a little bit of political will, it's achievable - as it should be.
acheron 13y ago
Because if government bureaucrats "regulate" something that means it has to be good, right?

smutticus 13y ago

So your answer to too much government bureaucracy is to add another layer of government bureaucracy. Really?