"I haven't compared government to a market at all."
 
I did not say that you did.  You stated that the government's "job" is to provide minimal regulations for safety and provide a low bar for entry.  You claim this is "econ 101 and basic reasoning skills" but can only do that if you disregard all the other reasons and rationalds you were presented that prove it is not simple "econ 101 and basic reasoning skills" . . . as libertarians are wont to do, ie. oversimply the issue to simple market-forces with limited or non-existent government interaction.

"The default in our system of government, regardless of political persuasion, has always been individual freedom"
Do you have a source for that?  Such "laissez-faire" approach to governance has been abandoned as the "default" for decades last I checked.