Clearly it's not true that "there is nothing really impossible for a sufficiently motivated government". Governments can and do succeed at some things, but the

Clearly it's not true that "there is nothing really impossible for a sufficiently motivated government". Governments can and do succeed at some things, but the scope of things they can do without negative consequences is very limited. History shows that very clearly, including the examples I suggested (which as you point out were messaging labels, but they all have had real and vast interventions to go with them), that you attempted to refute with more examples of government interventions playing out badly. To be clear, I'm not any kind of anti-government anarcho-capitalist or anything like that. I'm from Australia and am supportive of the mixed economy we have here. Also, please stop blithely invoking 1930-40s Germany as an example of governments achieving intended outcomes. It's not what I come to HN for, it makes my skin crawl, and even if you insist on a dispassionate evaluation of that system, our ability to determine how it would have played out long term is obviously very limited, but even then we know for sure it was horrific and not at all the kind of thing that should be described as "desirable", which is the very word that kicked off this subthread.