The Stupid, It Burns!

Actual story: Trash illegally[1] being burned in abandoned mining pit turned garbage dump lights off coal seam. Firefighters from the town put out the fire and think they have the whole thing out. Unbeknown to them it is starting to burn underground. As gases from the fire start to invade local mines they finally realize they have a problem on their hands. Every attempt to contain the fire proves far too small for the job starting with $175 paid to a guy with a backhoe. Everyone who makes an attempt blames not having enough money to get the job done and says, "If I'd just had the cash for foo it would have worked!" As per usual in these sorts of things. Never a problem with the plan, it is a problem with lack of something. Eventually the price tag to put it out is put at $660 million (and who knows if even that would work) and it is considered more cost effective to just buy the town out and let it burn. http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/the-story.htm

Libertarian story:
Town - Crap! We accidentally set a coal seam on fire.
Some guy with backhoe - Hey, give me less than $200, problem will be fixed.
(Yeah, right some guy with a backhoe could have put this out? Pfff.)
Town - Well, we need to do all the paperwork, give us a bit.
(Actually the town did pay him and he did the work, cost $175, and it did not work.)
Guy, some time later - Sorry town, it's too big for me to fix.
(This bit I believe. After trying he realized he was way in over his head.)
Mine owner - I'll fix it for free, if you let me keep any unburned coal I dig up.
(Ah yes, and now the hero of capitalism appears. The man with a plan who'll do it on the cheap, but is prevented by government process. Of course. Never mind that I cannot find a reference to this noble mine owner by name anywhere or even reference to how likely his plan was to succeed.)

I would do this for the whole thing, but I'm bored now. Suffice to say, as usual, the libertarian narrative of history bears as much resemblance to actual history as does the average communist polemic. And as usual otherwise intelligent livejournalers repost it to their journals because it fits with their preconceived notion of how the world works and don't bother to look up that the source was probably the website everything2.com's page on Centralia. http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=762057

[1] Ooooh, curse those evilbad state regulations that prevent us from burning our trash in open pits. It tramples our individual rights to determine what is best for our community. Well we'll just do it anyway...