If you’ve ever needed a police officer in an emergency or could imagine needing one in the future, you can thank government for making her available, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Local governments
Fire Safety and Prevention
Only governments can provide comprehensive solutions to common problems, solutions that combine trained and equipped personnel, public infrastructure, and regulation. Cities have done this with fire safety and, as a result, the risk of death or homelessness by fire has been reduced to a fraction of what it was in your great-grandparents’ days. For this, you can thank government.
Clean Drinking Water
The creation of dependable clean water systems is one of our greatest and least recognized urban accomplishments. Unrecognized, that is, unless something goes terribly wrong. But such incidents are exceedingly rare, and hundreds of millions of Americans can trust the safety of their drinking water. For this, we can thank government.
Public Health and Disease Control
If you’ve never had tuberculosis, smallpox, or polio, if you live in a healthier environment than your great-grandparents could ever have imagined, if you have reasonable hopes for vaccines for AIDS and Covid-19, you can thank government for these things.
City Parks
If you’ve ever gone to a festival or concert in a city park, taken a walk on a pedestrian trail, or played basketball or hopscotch on a playground, you can thank government for making these urban spaces available.