Thanks for the open mind. A small government can, indeed, be more detrimental to freedom than a large. A small government may operate using the fear of being reported by your own neighbors to control you. It can manipulate you by controlling the food resources, or housing. You don't have to be big to do that. Bankers, who are small in number, have huge populaces grovelling at their feet.

Large governments, and taxation, can build roads, schools, sanitation systems, provide free education, and even, if it ever behooved them, free food, housing, etc... . It doesn't always have to be robbing from the poor and giving to the rich - it's just that that's the way we seem to like it.