What services does the government provide that are not, or can not, be provided by the private sector?

Question

Other than law enforcement and national defense

Personally, I couldn't come up with anything. And since the private sector is always more efficient than governments, the question arises, "why is the government still involved in areas other than law enforcement and national defense?"

Additional Details

Jeremy B - I've never seen a government employee giving shots. Healthcare is provided by private doctors. Government just pays the bill

In most places garbage collection is paid for on the water bill. Just like medical and your cell phone, water and garbage collection factors in the cost of uncollectible accounts when billing you each month. easily done by the private sector.

There are already private individuals that you can hire for for legal arbitration and mediation. Wouldn't be that much of a stretch to privatize much of the court system.

The Fed is privatized. They have never been a government agency.

With the ease of communication and the internet, the CDC could be privatized as well. They could charge hospitals for their services and it would be in the hospital's best interests to have the most up to date medical information.

The government contracts private companies to build roads. Toll-ways do lend themselves to privatization and could be expanded to cover much of the highway system. Though I will admit city roads do not lend themselves to tolls as much.

9-1-1 is just a calling center. Most large companies either have a calling center for customer service or they contract out to one. Check your phone bill, it's paid for there.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

If it wasn't for the government, how would you recieve junk mail and coupons every week?

Sorry, that's all I could come up with. Except for junk mail the US Postal service is obsolete.

Also the IRS steals your money more effectively than any private organization ever could.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thank you all for the well thought out answers.

Answer 2

You mention law enforcement and defense...and I agree. Addi tonally our court system cannot be privatized nor can our tax system be privatized. The Fed cannot be privatized but must remain free and independent. Our city state and federal legislators cannot be privatized but certainly can be lobbied and bought.

Some of our federal emergency health services cannot be privatized, Center for Disease Control.

I personally am a great fan of privatization of government functions even though I'm a retired government worker. I've seen first hand the waste and disregard for our hard earned tax dollar and truly believe that the private sector could do a much better job at a significantly reduce cost than any government agency could do.

Answer 3

Public Health, law enforcement, judicial system, roads, water supply, sanitation. Any and all things that are "Public Goods" and do not lend themselves to a market based plan (consumer). How many of you would like to have 911 paid for only when you need it? Would that be sustainable when it was difficult to determine how many emergencies in a given community during a given year? Would we be ok with some of these things "going out of business?"

I have worked both in the private sector and the public sector. In LARGE private sector organizations there is as much waste or MORE than the government. The best efficiencies I have seen in the private sector is in small business.

Answer 4

National defense, Civil Servants that are ambassadors to other countries, The supreme Court and our legal System, Public Health, just to name a Few. If those were handled by the private sector they would put their profit margins before the common good.

Answer 5

Health services to those unable to pay.

Trash removal to those unable to pay.

Without these two items, you would have uncontrolled epidemics.

Answer 6

Taxes and the art of raising them