[bryanlarsen]

Fire fighters are probably the only profession that is deliberately and successfully under employed.

It's as it should be: fires are fairly random, so if firefighters are always busy fighting fires, then they aren't available if another fire breaks out.

I believe the calculation is that fire fighters should only be fighting fires 10% of the time to ensure that there are almost always fighters available.

Lots of other professions should not be always busy for the same reason: doctors, nurses, police, secretaries etc. The main reason why quarantines were continued so long in my country is because hospitals were at 110% before COVID and COVID was causing significant nurse burnout.

That deliberate idling of fire fighters might explain why they are more likely to create work for themselves than doctors or SRE's