Fire Free Wall Protection

Gulf Coast Business chamber news

Alabama Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce 

--The "Catch the Island Spirit" committee presented its June award to Susie Miller with the city of Orange Beach. The award honors an individual who works on the island and offers great customer service to guests or residents. To nominate someone for the honor, call the chamber at 251-968-7200 or visit www.alagulfcoastchamber.com to download an application.

Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce

--The chamber, city of Robertsdale and Robertsdale Rotary Club erected three flags and a monument on the chamber's front lawn, honoring four lifelong Rotarians and the chamber's founding fathers -- Grady P. "Jimmy" Gilbert Jr., Raymond Fell, Huey Mack Sr. and Percy Pearson. Family and friends enjoyed a May 31 ceremony raising the U.S., Alabama and city of Robertsdale flags. The Robertsdale Rotary Foundation and the city of Robertsdale funded the exhibit. Sylvia Mattingly of Century 21, SSM Realty donated money that bought food for the ceremony. 

--The chamber hosted its June Small Business After Hours at Loxley Civic Center with Power Productions as presenting sponsor. 

--Five Oaks Cypress Patio Furniture donated an outside bench for the chamber office. The company, founded in 1986 and located in Loxley, sells handcrafted cypress patio furniture. For more information on the company see www.cypresspatiofurniture.com. 

--Hiller Systems Inc. donated a wall-mounted business card holder for the chamber's media room. Mobile-based Hiller Systems specializes in fire protection systems engineered for industrial applications. More information is available by calling 251-661-1275. 

--The chamber is hosting Flavors of the South, an event that allows people to sample a variety of food and drink while listening to music and mingling. It is set from 5:30 to 8 p.m. July 28 at St. Patrick Catholic School gymnasium in Robertsdale. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for ages 5-12, and are available at the chamber office. Silent auction items are needed with donors recognized at the event and in the event booklet. Sponsorships are available, and the chamber is selling advertising in the event booklet, which will be given to all attendees the night of the event. Call the chamber at 251-947-2626 for more information, to reserve ad space and obtain ad dimensions. 

Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce

--Molly Laurendine "The Bug Lady," Eastern Shore Area manager for BugMaster Exterminators Inc., was selected as ambassador of the month for May. She was presented her award by Brenda Carpenter. Laurendine has also stepped into the new position of chairwoman for the chamber's Morning Marketing Meeting program, a free networking opportunity for chambers members held monthly at 8 a.m. on the third Thursday at the Overlook.

dotCommonweal » Blog Archive » The Market Fails

1. Any government intervention means the market has failed. Listening to right-wing and left-wing discussions about small versus big government, one can get the impression that either the free market represents the natural world and government is some sort of parasite, or government (in the form of society) represents the natural world and the capitalist market is some sort of parasite.

Above is a picture of a fire insurance medallion (or “firemark”). This is from a time when public fire brigades were either non-existent or completely inadequate and people who were worried about fires had to purchase fire protection from the private sector.  They would put these medallions on the front of their buildings so that the private firemen could identify them as a customer.  The fire protection the private sector provided was good for the time, but the free market ultimately failed to provide the kind of fire protection that we have now come to expect in this society. This failure was not because the government somehow stood in the way of the free market. It was that there was no reason why the private sector should be able to meet the need of universal fire protection for both those who could buy it privately and those who could not. The police be organized in a similar manner and the military also used to exist in this way at the time in Western history when national armies were made up entirely of mercenaries. I point this out to remind us that the government has always intervened when the market fails and if it looks like some “small government” functions like police, fire, and military protection seen “natural”, it’s because the government has been intervening in them for so long that we have forgotten why the government intervened in the first place. The market has always failed whenever resources were needed by those who can’t enter the market or when capital costs were too high for private holders of capital to combine themselves. The distinction between a free market on one hand and the government on the other is a false one.

2. The definition of “market failure” is always a moral one. Government intervention in any form, from the building of an army to corporate welfare, always involves the movement of resources from one group to another by the government in a way that the market cannot. This always involves the question of desserts. Do those with the resources deserve to lose them and those without deserve to get them? It is the definition of market failure that changes over time, as society comes to decide that the market will not provide a service in the form that society needs it. Health care in America is a case in point. The health care market provides very well for a few, well for some, and hardly at all for others. In these terms, since the people who get healthcare get it to the degree they can pay for it, the market does what it does well. On the other hand, the free market cannot provide insurance benefits for everyone, and since the universal provision of these benefits has become a social value, the market has been deemed a failure and the government now has to intervene. The same market had the same situation with the masses of uninsured in the past. It’s just that in the past we did not see this as a market failure in the way that we do now. The definition of market failure, whether it refers to a need to have a standing army, a public provision of police and fire protection, Social Security, Medicare, sugar and ethanol subsidies, or universal health insurance is always a social construct around a moral debate.

Fire protection handbook

National fire codes, a compilation of NFPA codes, standards, recommended practices and guides

Industrial fire protection engineering

Building codes illustrated, a guide to understanding the 2006 International building code

Fire prevention and fire protection as applied to building construction, a handbook of theory and practice