Writing in The Weekly Standard, Jonathan V. Last describes the evolution of the child car-seat regime. It's a good example of the ratchet effect (or if you like, salami tactic) at work. The first car seats were sold in the 1930s, but car seat usage didn't take off for decades. Now they're ubiquitous.

What prompted the change? Persistent lobbying--not of parents, but of government officials--by a few dedicated activists.

While child car seats have saved lives, Last says that other efforts would have been more cost-effective in saving lives. The car-seat campaign has made its goals more ambitious, which is to say, less respectful of the choices of families, over time. The latest push would impose a different standard on children until their twelfth birthday.

As Last says, "... while safety [or health] is a rational public good, should it be the paramount public good? It should not need saying, but there are things in life more important than safety. Some of them are bedrock ideals, such as freedom."

So what does all this have to do with health care? At first blush, not much. But government pays over half the bill for health care in the country, and the attractiveness of the Mommy State to shield us from danger is never far from view. Lost in this vision, though, is a respect for the differences between government and civil society.

When we lose that respect, we become serfs of government, which even by its own measures fails to go about its business in the most effective way.