@hightor,
hightor wrote:
Quote: The underlying point is that efforts to give the government exclusive control of the management of social and economic issues, themselves end up in changing the character of the government - and in very undesirable ways.
Except that no one is campaigning to give the government exclusive control of the management of social and economic issues.
Quote:When government controls everything the stakes for power become very high indeed, usually resulting in authoritarian tyranny and pervasive corruption.
You mean as in the Scandinavian countries? See, it's possible to introduce "socialist" measures without the countries turning into the sorts of dictatorships you seem to fear so much.
My point above is that the degradation of public freedom and the integrity of government is reduced in rough proportion to the degree such measures are enacted. Both are lasting evils that continuingly erode the fabric of governments practicing them.
You are entirely incorrect in your reference to the Scandinavian Countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). All enjoy intensely free market capitalist systems, with relatively light regulatory burdens (compared to Germany & France), and all are ranked very high in international rankings of countries for ease of doing business. None of these countries has a government-mandated minimum wage. All practice intense local control of most social services, including health and welfare systems, and all provide educational vouchers to parents who are completely free to choose as they wish among the (mostly private) schools for their children's education.
In the 1980 and 1990s the Scandinavian Countries did indeed experiment with some elements of 'Democratic Socialism' (as it is called in Europe) but rather decisively abandoned it starting about 22 years ago due the enervating effects on economic activity and social responsibility that quickly resulted.
Today's economic and educational policies in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden much more closely resemble those of Republicans here than those of our increasingly lunatic Democrats.