Individual cost of infrastructure and services

Factual Questions
1

I do not want this to become a debate. I’m looking for factual answers.

If an individual had to pay for the infrastructure and public services he uses, how much would the total be?

I know that it’s widely variable. Most people would not have to pay the fire department for the cost of putting out their burning houses. But that’s one thing I’d like to know: How much does it cost in equipment, resourses, salaries, etc. for the fire department to fight a fire in an average home? There are people who support charging hikers or skiiers for the cost of their rescues. I think that a pilot who fails to close his flight plan or activates his ELT might be liable for the cost of a search, should one be mounted. So…

Approximately, on average, what is the actual cost of the fire department fighting a fire at someone’s house?

If an individual had to pay for the cost of the roads and freeways he uses, what would be the actual cost of that per mile? (Not the cost of gas, the car, etc.; the cost of the roads and their maintenance, etc.)

How much does it cost per student to have a child go to a public school?

And so on, and so forth.

Finally – and again, I don’t want this to turn into a debate – what is the approximate cost people pay in taxes to support these things?

2

You can get some government revenue and expenditure data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The data doesn’t break things down into cost per student, cost per fire, or what have you. But for at least some spending categories, you can work out some kind of average cost (e.g. School-Spending/Enrollment ~= Average Cost per Student, etc…). Not perfect by any stretch, but it’s something.

You can also find tax revenue information on the site.

3

My previous response on costs for fighting a house fire:

As for the other stuff, I’ll leave that for someone a bit more knowledgable than myself.

4

Caldazar: Thank you for the link. Rough day at the office though, so I’ll have to try to make sense of it later.

KCB615: Interesting read. If I read it correctly, it’s about three kilobucks per fire actual cost. But you still have the capital outlay for the acquisition of the vehicles, equipment, and buildings, salaries other costs for the firefighters, and other costs associated with running a fire department, that have to be averaged into the annual incidents (with big-ticket items such as trucks and buildings being spread out over x years.