Government intervention

What happens when the government subsidizes an activity? That activity increases.

Lyndon Johnson claimed that there was an epidemic of illegitimate births in the United States. In order to solve that problem, the federal government started subsidizing giving birth to illegitimate children. After that, the number of illegitimate births in the United States skyrocketed.

On June 2, 2000 Ben Boychuk and Matthew Robinson wrote in the Washington Times: “Since the 1960s we've learned that the Great Society was an extended war on the role of the father in bringing up children. Let's not make the sanctimonious phrase, "quality education daycare" a synonym for a war against mom.”

Before the government introduced third party payers into the health care system, doctors and hospitals had to keep costs low enough that patients could pay out of pocket. Paying, out of pocket, encouraged patients to spend less time at the doctor’s office.

There is an obvious pattern here. When progressives want to expand the size of government, they claim there is a crisis and only the government can solve the problem. The government solution creates a much bigger problem than the one that existed previously. Progressives point at the government created problem and say that only the government can solve this bigger problem.

The real solution is to the government out of the loop.