Although I'm self-employed, I'm currently working on contracts for DARPA. Okay, so defense is a legitimate function of government, but I've done NASA contracts too, and civilian space travel, however we may support it, is not a constitutional function of government. Full disclosure.

...the free market on the scale it is today cannot maintain itself without a financial, legal, and regulatory superstructure created by government. There is the need for infrastructure which the free market will not provide. There needs to be an arbitrator of last resort.

If you mean what I think you mean, I probably agree. "Infrastructure" is a fuzzy word. If you are talking about the government functions required to protect the individual and property rights of its citizens, I agree. This includes police, courts, and other functions for settling legal and contractual disputes under objective laws. The infrastructure that prevents people who are swinging their arms from hitting other people in the face.

There needs to be a financial risk taker to develop technologies that have no near term profit returns.

Disagree. The assumption that only a government is far-thinking enough to do pure research does a disservice to our high-tech industries, which do just fine, thanks. One wonders how much more research drug companies could do if it didn't cost billions to jump through the hoops required to sell a drug.

Every single nation that offers public education have all vastly increased standards of living within a generation.

The socialist ones don't, but that's not really relevant to your point. I think that something as valuable and desirable as education would have developed a thriving private sector solution over the years if public education had not been made mandatory. That's water under the bridge, now, like public highways. I would like to see more alternatives to our standard public schooling system made available. I see promising things in home schooling via the Internet, and I like the voucher idea. Although it's still government funded, at least there's more choices, and its a start.

I happen to like things like medical regulations, airline regulations, food inspection and a wide range of other things the government does to keep my standard of living better than in most nations.

I like these things too. I just don't think it requires the Federal Government to accomplish them. Think Underwriters' Laboratories, or the sorts of thing professional associations used to do before the government takeover of the field.

There are extensive economic proofs showing why the free market cannot perform some functions of society.

Boy, I'd love to see one of those. Usually they wind up trying to justify spending money on something that, given a choice, not enough people want to spend money on.

Ayn Rand is not the last word in economics.

Maybe, but she makes a lot more sense than a lot of academics who have "economist" on their shingle.