It boils down to this: The only "legitimate" functions of government are to protect the life and liberty of the people it represents. Even these functions need not be provided as a monopoly, however. In fact, the argument can be (and has been) made that providing these functions in this manner itself violates the principles which the government claims to uphold. The production of security, like any other industry, is best left to the free market.

You say that what we see around us is the result of "less stringent regulations." On the contrary, it is the result of stringent regulations limiting the field of competition, followed by a relaxation of those regulations for the established few. Every regulatory agency is staffed by former employees of the industry it regulates. Does this not seem like a conflict of interest to you? Former members of regulatory committees regularly take positions in the industry they regulated. Does this not seem like a conflict of interest to you? Industries spend great deals of money on lobbyists to get laws passed which limit their competition. Does this seem like a free market to you?

This is not a free market. This is Fascism. Corporatism. Crony Capitalism. Call it whatever you like, it is the unholy marriage of business and state, starting with the very concept of the limited liability corporation. That legal fiction has allowed CEOs and other corporate officers to run their company, and their stockholders, into the ground, and walk away richer than when they started. That legal fiction has allowed corporations to fund political candidates as if they were people. That legal fiction has enabled a great deal of the misery which you call the fault of the "free market."