The socialist path to power is an easy one. Find people who are having real difficulties handling situations that are out of their control, promise them a fix through government force, and get their support.

There are practical problems to letting the government “fix” something:

The amount of information needed to address a situation. For a government to handle your situation, they either have to know everything you know (including things you don’t want them to know), or they have limited knowledge and make a general rule that merely infuriates everyone. Maintaining all that information has costs, even before you take into account inadvertent releases of private data to the public.

Limited resources. Most states are constitutionally mandated to maintain a balanced budget. The federal government’s overspending results in depressed buying power on the part of the consumer. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Lack of accountability. Legislators do not immediately feel the consequences of their actions on the general public. There is no incentive to fix a screw-up unless it involves a gain of legislative power or it’s the campaign season.

Impossibility to keep the law. As regulation becomes more and more complex, it becomes easier to trap and selectively prosecute citizens. Lawyers become the arbitrators of right and wrong, and they do no better at that than the rest of us.

Unintended consequences. Government intrudes at the expense of the market. In a market situation, providers compete for your choice to spend money with them. They have constant incentive to improve. When government steps in, they dictate the terms of your participation, and if you don’t like it, you’re lucky if you can elect not to participate. Government bureaucrats and industries propped up by the government only have to perform as much as the law dictates they should.