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Several years ago, I proposed a way to implement Linda's sensible advice, a method that would respect private property rights while minimizing the burden on taxpayers. That is, why should a town resident in a trailer park pay higher taxes so there can be fire protection for some McMansion in a flammable forest?
The solution is the Stupid Zone. Every rural county wound consult experts and draw up maps of combustible areas, flood plains, avalanche paths, unplowable roads and the like.
Those areas would be designated Stupid Zones, and property buyers would have to be informed about that designation. They would, however, be free to build whatever they wanted.
But they would receive no public services -- no fire-fighting, school buses, road-plowing, emergency rescue, etc. In other words, they would have to be totally responsible for their own well-being, as Linda explains.
But so far, no matter how many counties adopt a "Code of the West" or a "Freedom to Farm" policy, none has tried the simple, cheap method of the Stupid Zone.
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