• Bigfishbest@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Ancient Rome had privatized fire department. Caesar’s friend Crassus got the job and used it to extort people to sell their homes in a neighborhood when a fire broke out. As a result he became one of the richest people in history. He was also killed by the Persians who poured liquid gold (or silver, depending on source) on his decapitated head and sent it back to Rome.

    • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      America’s original firefighters were private industry as well. They were known to loot peoples property and allow fires to spread in order to charge more for putting out multiple buildings. So it sounds like we have about 2000 years of history telling us private firefighters aren’t a great idea.

    • affiliate@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      He was also killed by the Persians who poured liquid gold (or silver, depending on source) on his decapitated head and sent it back to Rome.

      we should bring that back. the persians were onto something here.

    • RidderSport@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      On an unrelated note, “crass” basically means fat

      Interestingly “krass” and “fett” are both informal/ slang in German for something incredible