Club goods are non-rival (one person’s use of the good doesn't diminish the amount of the good that is available for other peoples' use) and excludable (a person can be prevented from using or benefiting from the service). I've made the case that theoretically, fire protection could be a club good (see here). There is even some evidence (see that same post) that fire protection could have been a club good historically in New Zealand. There were also stories from other countries on the same point. For example, see this from the Zurich Insurance magazine:
Despite some reciprocal arrangements, firefighting units would ignore burning buildings once discovered it was not covered by their insurance company.
However, it turns out that the stories about London firefighters ignoring burning buildings that were not covered by their insurance company may have been false. See this recent YouTube video by Tom Scott:
That doesn't necessarily mean that the stories about New Zealand firefighters only fighting fires in buildings covered by insurance companies are false. Only that it seems likely that the similar stories about London firefighters are untrue.
So, perhaps fire protection has never been a club good, even though theoretically it could be.
Read more:
No comments:
Post a Comment