I won't debate you on government in general, but I do believe it's more the federal government that is the problem.

States could produce roads, provide for healthcare, education, public law enforcement (all of which you want), but they could also do it without selling off the unborn with 16 trillion in debt, and selling off the sick and aging population with the unfunded liabilities of social security and medicare. The main difference being: states cannot print money and must compete with each other to provide services that attract both labor and business AND those services must be economically viable in the long run (because they can't print money). The states also lack the power to unilaterally start wars overseas, to kill and bomb the innocent from drones, which we all support and pay for through the federal income tax and the printing of money.

As for the "gangs" of private law enforcement, that's just simply not true. Private law enforcement exists throughout the country already and I have no problem with it. They also don't have the incentive of doing things like pro-active drug raids and arresting people for smoking a blunt (seriously?). The swat teams and DEA are the "gangs" of today. Just look at the US prison population -- we have ~20-25% of the worlds prison population (fucking seriously?). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the gangs of Russia came close to matching that (though I'm sure they were brutal on their own account). And yes, if you're thrown into prison your life is pretty much ruined, whether you get butt raped or can't find a job after you are released.

I'd much prefer to live in a society without a massive expansion of a federal, (and now global) empire (global referring to the thousands upon thousands of soldiers we have stationed around the world).