Big vs Small government

Just read the post linked to in the title and it struck me as an acute trouble with the hardline ideology of small govenenment. There needs to be some ideological slack where the private market is unable to do what needs doing, there are just some things that the profit incentive is simple ilsuited to deal with.

An alternative is always something along the lines of issuing income guarantees at birth and accepting that much of society will spend their lives anethetized in front of the TV, but then that's a little big government too.