I am confused Katz...
Are you saying that the gov should not be cleaning up the mess that the big companies are making, i.e. soil and water pollution/Love Canal/super fund sites?
Are you saying that there should be no internet, as that was a government effort?
How about the interstate highway system?
Sorry to be confusing with that. (I was attempting to be very terse for a reason.) What I mean is that if the federal gubmint stayed within the confines of the Constitution, and did those things well, we wouldn't find ourselves in many of the situations we are now thrashing in. Using the 4th amendment discussion as a case in point, we find a large number of people that are well versed in the Constitution, considering ways to counter our basic liberties for the purpose of "safety."
Specifically in this case, had the federal gubmint performed (what some would argue as its primary duty as being part of a strong national defense) its duty in maintaining a SECURE border (and an immigration system
focused on the needs of this nation), then the country would not be overrun with all types of subversives and evil doers. Additionally, had the gubmint not been corrupted into allowing Communists to settle in and fester discord within this country for many decades, a similar benefit would have accrued. (And further, we are now seeing the islamists doing the same in a contemporary parallel.)
Had that been the case, then we would not find many of our leaders arguing in support of the need for these large "safety traps" which must, by their nature, infringe on the Constitutional rights of ALL citizens.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
-- Benjamin Franklin
(As far as your other examples/questions, I will be brief. I am a bit of a libertarian in that I believe that we are best served by allowing the free market to perform many of the societal 'police' functions that we've ceded to gubmint. In some cases the free market forces may not be as swift, but their effects far more long lasting. About the public Internet, I was there for that (and I never saw Al Gore once!), built out some of the initial commercial foundations stemming from the DARPA project. It was nothing but a nascent asynchronous multi-layered comms model (which in and of itself was (and still is!) quite stunning in its simplicity); it wasn't until the free market and commercial interests stepped into the game that it became the marvelous set of tools that we all use to have fun here today!!)
