I apologise if this gets posted twice.

Those who want to start charging for rescue should realize that they are also opening the door for more litigation. If you're gonna charge me you better perform.

Same thing goes for the fire department and SAR, if you're gonna charge for your services, you better perform lest you be sued for negligence.

Someone wrote earlier that charging fees is a way of not charging the community at large for an individual's mistakes, it's a short leap from that position to the one where individuals start to refuse to pay for services that they don't use, ie, childless couples shouldn't have to pay for schools, pacifists shouldn't have to pay for wars, etc. Again I go back to the idea of "community" and the social contract.

JohnE