I agree with all of this, but I'd add that governments have also actively eroded people's physiological needs as well. Food and water insecurity is a real thing that at least the US government has some heavy role in creating.

As for free air... I mean, yeah. Air is free. But lots of industry and climate issues, where governments have done nothing but encourage overuse of certain resources, have left us with some pretty terrible air in many places.

I don't think that government is the best way to solve these problems. I think there's power in our own sense of community. The irony is that that is what eventually gives rise to new governmental structures. So where do we go from here? I don't know.