I absolutely do not advocate a socialist style government. However, I do feel there are certain functions, such as police, fire fighters, etc. that government is better at providing.
I'm not sure that either function is "better" served by government though. There are many cases of very successful privately run "police" and firefighters. Generally speaking I think any function is run better by a person who has the greatest motivation to succeed. The greatest motivators in business are profit and love of the job.