Why are there so many more acids than bases?

Question

I mean, I can rattle off the names of maybe a hundred acids (I've taught chemistry for 13 years), but only relatively few bases: ammonia, LiOH, NaOH, KOH, RbOH, CsOH; calcium, magnesium, strontium, barium, and radium hydroxides, plus methylamine, ethylamine, etc., plus the amino acids, which can act as either acids OR bases.

It's hard to think of a chemical nastier than radium hydroxide.

Answer 1

A base is the soluble hydroxide of a metal. As you have quite correctly said, this limits the number of bases to the number of metals in the periodic table, plus a smaller number of soluble metal carbonates.

On the other hand, any anion that forms a compound with an ionisable H+ is an acid. This gives tremendous scope for acids to be formed.

Answer 2

Things don't need a hydroxide group to be a base.  There are an equal amount of acids as bases.  Every acid has a conjugate base.  Perhaps reading into some inorganic chemistry will help as all bases and acids do not have to follow the lewis and arrhenius rules.