Yes, I do think we can come up with reasonable limits for some of these things at least. The government already does limit bad parenting. Probably not the leve

Yes, I do think we can come up with reasonable limits for some of these things at least. The government already does limit bad parenting. Probably not the level you're talking about, but social services will step in if they believe kids are being abused. Personally, I think the government should do more to ensure kids have more options for peer and adult social contact outside of their cloistered nuclear family, and ditto for new mothers, and that that would help with bad parenting a great deal. Payday loans are a big problem. People should be able to declare bankruptcy to remove predatory loans. Fast food is causing real dietary problems. I do think we should do more to ensure people understand how what they're eating affects them. Putting nutrition information on food was a good step, and maybe we can come up with more improvements. For sports gambling and gambling in general, I believe that anyone behind on their child support should be banned from gambling. I also believe that people should be able to put themselves on a "banned" list with a 1 month waiting period to be able to take themselves off. Legislation gave us clean air and water, buildings that fall down much less, a monetary system that evaporates peoples' savings much less, food that isn't poisonous, schools that spread less disease, safer cars that use less gas, more power efficient homes, and on and on and on. So yes, the educated audience on HN does want to solve problems with rules and incentives.