I am preparing a lecture, and  am in need of material to help make the
following point: We are the recipeints of much good from our
government. While we are so accustomed to hearing about abuse and
misuse of power, the reality is that we benfit a tremdous amount of
from all of the different agencies and programs that exist on a
Federal, State, and local level. What I am specificly looking for is
stastics, examples, case in points, that show what life would be like
without these institutions. Everything from Ambulance, police,
emergency, ageincies montioring food and Drug, medicince, weights and
measures.....

Libertarians are of the opinion that most of the things you mentioned
would be supplied by private enterprise, if government encouraged
rather than discouraged private corporations from competing with
government agencies. We need government for liberating countries like
Afganastan, Iraq, and Hatii.

You might want to rethink your position. More logical arguments can be
made that most of the "good" we receive from the government would be
"better" if they came from other sources. If you intend to
realistically show what life would be like without many of these
institutions be prepared to have to show something that completely
disagree with what you're intending to convince your audience of.

As the previous 2 comments indicate, there are many ways of
approaching this problem.  It might help to consider 2 alternatives
(taking police as example):

1) What would things be like if *nobody* provided police services?

2) What would things be like if police services (or equivalent) were
provided by a non-government organizations?

Approach #1 addresses the fact that government does provide many
services which we would miss if they were gone.

Approach #2 addresses the question of whether the goverenment is the
"best" or "most efficient" way to provide these services.  This is a
much more difficult question to answer, and many people have strong
opinions either way.