Quite true.
I am not going to argue that alot of our technology comes from government, the majority, in fact. But technological research would still occur in an open market, individualist country.
Law and order should be maintained, you are correct, but at whose expense? At the expense of those who do not threaten the security of our fellow man, or at the expense of those who do?
In an open market system, law and order can still be maintained. The system to do so would be privatized.
There is a very basic system for maintaining control. That is non-initiation of force. Everyone is allowed to bear arms, but force cannot be brought upon another human being, unless his actions are directly threatening you.
Enforcing this law would be the only thing a government would be required to do, that and (as said before) to raise an army in times of war.
It wouldn't work, it would be the waring states era in Feudal Japan all over again. There would be no justice, strength would prevail. Those trained as warriors would dominate over the weak. Human nature can not function under a fully liberal system like that. It only works if everyone thinks the same, as you may have noticed on this website alone, not everyone thinks the same.
I understand what you are getting at, but the social structure you want relies on individuals. The individual human is shit incase you havn't noticed. Our minds are too chaotic, to different from one another. Humans NEED a group to identify themselves as being a part of. Government creates a large group for humans to identify themselves with.
You and I are Americans, we belong to the USA and are part of a major super power. In addition to that we may, as individuals, belong to countless other groups (family, friends, jobs, hobbies, sporting events, so on and so fourth).
It is important to recognize the need for a large scale social group to be part of. How we respond to threats that effect us all (9/11, Katrina, WWII, alien invasions) is determined by the group these threats directly effect.
As Americans, we ALL responded to 9/11 with pretty much exactly the same response. That was to desire the death of who ever was responsible. We reacted in a similar manor towards Katrina. We as Americans pulled together and did what we could to help fellow Americans who were effected by the hurricane. Global events like WWII or an Alien Invasion would raise the bar to a human-wide scale. You and I may never associate with one another on any other level then human, yet chances are we would end up fighting side by side against aliens. Had we been born in a different era, we would fight side by side as Americans in a war against the Nazi Regime.
As individuals, we would have no group to associate ourselves with. We wouldn't cooperate on any level and would thus revert back to the Waring States era in Feudal Japan.