The concern is not primarily economic. In many areas, search and rescue personnel are primarily unpaid volunteers and the cost involved could be quite small. Th

The concern is not primarily economic. In many areas, search and rescue personnel are primarily unpaid volunteers and the cost involved could be quite small. The larger issue is that searchers regularly expose themselves to personal risk in order to recover missing people. While searchers are better prepared, they often operate in large numbers and the realities of the situation require them to handle conditions which they would normally consider too dangerous (rough terrain, poor weather, etc). This makes injuries, and occasional fatalities, inevitable. Even without any injuries they spend a great deal of their time and energy on an effort that may have been unnecessary had the missing person taken better precautions. There is some nuance here: the reality is that well-prepared people doing the best they can do become lost or injured and require rescue. This is not a "bad" thing but simply the result of activities that are not risk-free, and everything from government agency capabilities to volunteer SAR exist to mitigate this risk. But there is a difference between a person who requires rescue despite their best efforts and a person who requires rescue due to their complete negligence. There is no "bright line" between these two groups, but it's often quite clear on the ground whether or not someone had the respect for the situation that they should have. Search and rescue operations for these individuals are often shorter and lower risk, anyway, because they leave behind information (or even carry communication devices) that make them easier to find, and their preparation may make their injuries less severe or better handled by the time rescuers arrive.