<div dir="ltr">Richard,<div>Thank you for ranting!! I wish we would publicly and properly fund fire, search and rescue in rural areas. It would create meaningful jobs with benefits and could easily expand into rural health systems as well. </div><div>Joe.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 8:20 AM Richard Wheeler <<a href="mailto:richarduwheeler@gmail.com">richarduwheeler@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>Two recent articles in <i>The New York Times</i>:</div><div>"Pandemic Wilderness Explorers Are Straining Search and Rescue" <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/us/coronavirus-wilderness-search-rescue.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/us/coronavirus-wilderness-search-rescue.html</a></div><div>"Rural Ambulance Crews Have Run Out of Money and Volunteers" <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/us/rural-ambulance-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/us/rural-ambulance-coronavirus.html</a></div><div><br></div><div>So many services in the United States rely on volunteer labor, and that labor is less and less available, and/or it is aging and not being replaced.<br></div><div><br></div><div>As an example, here's a story about a recent rescue in Los Angeles:</div><div>"Hiker Rescued After Man Uses Photo to Pinpoint His Location" <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/us/missing-hiker-found.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/us/missing-hiker-found.html</a></div><div>At least three of the rescuers pictured in the story are volunteers, and notice something about all of them: they are all grey-haired and not getting any younger. To join this team, volunteers need to go through an application and training process that takes <i>up to three and half years</i> and includes half a year of law enforcement training and requires becoming a part-time law enforcement officer. It's hard to maintain a system with this kind of staffing model. And there are many systems like this in the United States that supply critical services.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Mostly just ranting here. Looking for fellow ranters.<br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Richard Wheeler<br><span><font color="#888888"><a href="mailto:richarduwheeler@gmail.com" target="_blank">richarduwheeler@gmail.com</a><br><a href="tel:347.661.8476" value="+13476618476" target="_blank">347.661.8476</a></font></span><br></div></div></div></div></div>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Joseph T. DaBoll-Lavoie, Ph.D.<br>Professor of Economics <br>School of Business and Leadership, Nazareth College <br>585-389-2572 <br> <span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:top">“Capitalism is
the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of
reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all.” — John Maynard
Keynes</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>