Why are firefighting services usually provided by the government and not by private firms? First of all, the fire services is a kind of public goods, public goods means the goods that no matter whether the individuals are willing to buy, each member of the whole society can benefit from. It is produced by the public sector or it is a product, provided by the government, that the private are unwilling or unable to manufacture, including international security, police, fire services, roads, education and so on.Typically, the Government is defined as public goods producers, public goods are defined as the production and delivery of government products.
The market could do nothing about it. "Public goods" are a non-competitive and non-exclusive items, such as "fire services. " There are many kinds of public goods provided by “the private ", such as: the complete supply of the private sector; private and government joint supply; private and community joint supply.However, "fire service" the public goods, provided by the private sector, are exclusive, that is, someone with payment can use, someone without payment canl not be able to enjoy the fire services, which will appear the phenomenon that "see the fire did not save". In order to avoid the tragedy that is "see the fire is not put out ", and to allow all residents to enjoy the "fire service", therefore, "fire service" is usually provided by the Government. That some public goods are provided by private enterprise is feasible, but it is not as effectively as the public.
There is one possibility that is providing services to more people has very low marginal costs (that is, the exclusive use of very low) . Taking the examples such as fire services, from the perspective of society, it is necessary to provide services to all area residents, because it will not increase the fire brigade. However, the private fire service must be provided in accordance with the private fire brigade. The families that can not afford to pay the cost of poor are excluded from the services.This is a net efficiency loss for the society because they have been included will not significantly increase the economic costs of society. Usually the goods do not have the competitive consumption are called public goods.
A person increases the consumption of these products will not reduce other people's consumption level, and a person increase their consumption of these products will not cause any increase in product cost. At the same time, a certain public goods do not have exclusive, that is, some people can not be uled out "non-payment of it to spend money", then known as the pure public goods.Public goods are non-competitive, and they can be consumed by many people, and a marginal cost for increase in consumer spending is zero. Consumers get some effectiveness from public goods, and its consumption of the marginal cost for a certain degree of effectiveness is zero. From the perspective of efficiency (price equal to marginal cost), t all people should enjoy free public goods. If public goods are produced by the private sector, then they will be bankrupt.
Public goods are non-exclusive, and it is easy to have a free-rider problem, that is, it is not avoided that some people can not pay the same consumption of public goods. In such a case, if everyone did not pay or pay very low cost to the consumer of public goods, then there would be no privates who are willing to provide public goods. Even if some consumers are not "free-riders", willing to pay for their own, they are just the basis of public goods to his private interests to determine the price he is willing to pay, rather than in accordance with the interests of the community decided to pay him the price.If public goods are produced by the private in competitive market, the result can only be lower than the community is asking the optimal number of outputs, or even zero output. Since the market mechanism has nothing to configure on the efficiency of public goods, then only the government or public sector can organize the production and allocate the public goods in accordance with the principle of social welfare.Many related governments have ever claimed that we got three incumbencies-----even these incumbencies are very important,most people can understand.
The first is protecting our society to avoid being attacked from others independent society. The second is trying best to protect everyone to avoid being attacked or pressure from others in our society. This is to set a solemn and just judicatory department. The last is to construct and keep some public undertaking and construction.
