[samatman]

Well, not entirely. They benefit from that 'baked in' cost as well, companies and individuals are less willing to be negligent or exploitative because of the fear of lawsuits.

True of the police as well: calling them doesn't benefit me much, but they do play a role in making the streets (relatively) safe at night.

In both cases we might imagine a better way of doing these things, I'm speaking about the world we happen to have.