A truism about government used to be heard periodically:  A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.  That saying’s a bit dark, though, and makes its point in an extreme way that younger Americans who’ve been raised with an implicit trust of big government might reject out of hand.

Here’s a milder version that everybody should at least consider:  If the government provides you services and pays for all your needs but makes your life more difficult and takes more of your wealth, the only thing that changes is your dependency on government.

Of course, the unspoken bargain in the minds of many who support larger government is that they will get more of what they need at the expense of other people who don’t need what they have.  For now, however, simply encouraging thought about tradeoffs would be a helpful step.