Government seems to do what Ben wishes s to limit expenditure on SAR activities. The budget defines the number of helicopters, personnel, fuel, and supplies available for sar work. Volunteers augment this expenditure, but not infinitely. Any sar effort will be constrained to using up the existing budgeted items, and will stop when those are exhausted. Some states have an abundance of resources, others a much more modest supply, predicated on the will of appointed and elected officials to use the resources under their control. If you get lost in Alaska, you may get a military helicopter ride; if in Wyoming, it might be Harrison Ford flying a personal chopper (it happened, twice). Get lost in the Adirondacks, and you get a couple of forest rangers, and maybe an ATV. I think it means that the political system is doing exactly what Ben wants done: applying a calculus of the value of rescuing someone in determining how to allocate funds. It just happens in an arcane, covert, and unknowable fashion, which we call democracy.

Same thing happens in ER's. We hold out the offer to care for all comers, but limit access by limiting the number and size of ER's, so that queuing, delays in care and lack of capacity make the difference in who lives and dies, rather than a committee. It all seems to be working just fine...