Getting the government to do the right things and do them well is itself a public goods problem, and one that as far as I know is as-yet unsolved. All of those "numerous issues" apply to public provision of goods at least as well as they apply to private provision. Your list of objections to private action ("free rider problems, collective action problems, problems involving positive and negative externalities, problems involving information asymmetries") would only constitute evidence supporting government action IF we had access to bureaucrat-gods - government workers who have perfect information, are perfectly benevolent, are motivated to do the right thing, never do anything that produces unanticipated negative consequences.
Since bureaucrat-gods don't exist, you need to at least argue that the problems of externalities and such will be lessened by public action. But I don't believe that argument has been made - it's usually just assumed away.
Comments
Getting the government to do the right things and do them well is itself a public goods problem, and one that as far as I know is as-yet unsolved. All of those "numerous issues" apply to public provision of goods at least as well as they apply to private provision. Your list of objections to private action ("free rider problems, collective action problems, problems involving positive and negative externalities, problems involving information asymmetries") would only constitute evidence supporting government action IF we had access to bureaucrat-gods - government workers who have perfect information, are perfectly benevolent, are motivated to do the right thing, never do anything that produces unanticipated negative consequences.
Since bureaucrat-gods don't exist, you need to at least argue that the problems of externalities and such will be lessened by public action. But I don't believe that argument has been made - it's usually just assumed away.