Ding Dong!

Hi there neighbor. Would you like to share my
lovely fire service with me? It cost me a few
million dollars, it has lots of people and shiny
parts, and you might want it to save your house
or life some day.

How much?

Well, we've already got a lot of sunk costs into it,
and our main base of customers are "captive", and we
are paid for, so while it may cost us hundreds per
year per house we serve, we'll cut you a break, and
charge you a MEASLY $75. Even though we have to travel
farther to get to you and every call will cost us
more than the norm.

Nah, don't want.

You sure? This is a TINY price to pay compared
to the service we are providing. If you have a
fire, it can end up costing many thousands
of dollars per hour for some type of fire
response.

Yup, I'm sure. $75 is too much for me. I'd rather
throw the dice.

If you don't pay, we are NOT going to send our pretty
toys and people to save your property or even
possibly your life. If we do show up, it'll be to
hang around and make sure the fire does not jump to
your neighbor's property who has chosen to engage
our service. As a matter of fact, our insurance company
PROHIBITS us from entering the burning property of a
non-customer, so we are well trained to ignore it.
We cannot risk the multi-million dollar lawsuit when
someone sues us for screwing up a "save". We will NOT
help you at all in that situation. Are you SURE you
do not want to pay the $75?

Sure, I'm sure. Now you sound like you are extorting me!
Screw you jack, you ain't getting any money out of me.
F'off.

SLAM!!

Lather rinse repeat this conversation MANY times over
MANY years over MANY people.

You ever run into a burning building for someone who told
you to f'off? Doubt it.

Doesn't work that way.
If it was ONLY $75 after the fact, then NO ONE would pay.
$75 before, $20,000 or more after.