The consequence is that, as planning extends, the delegation of legislative powers to diverse boards and authorities becomes increasingly common. Time proved Hayek to be right. Government in the U.S. and around the world grew in size and power to heights unimagined by our founding fathers. What began as limited exercises of state charity became entitlement programs trapping millions in dependency. Schooling was once a predominantly private matter, but now nearly 90 percent of school-age children in the U.S. attend government schools.
Government restricts our freedom to contract for health insurance and medical services.
A thicket of regulations discourages entrepreneurship and innovation. Government's powers of search and seizure have reached dangerous heights. The 1980s and 1990s have witnessed a sea change in the way government growth is viewed. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall revealed the ruinous costs and human suffering caused by socialism in action. Social scientists documented the failure of the Great Society programs and others that rely on government bureaucracies and tax dollars.