When choices are left to individuals, the correct and most profitable path will likely be taken on a MACRO level. While there will certainly be people who choose to walk down the ditches of that path and wander into the woods, the society as a whole will progress in a profitable direction. People will not only learn from their own mistakes but from the mistakes of others.
On the other hand, when you shield people from the natural negative consequences of their actions, the society is not guided in any direction at all (other than the one in which the government leads it).
Excellent points.
The fly in the ointment though is that the government has been so involved in our lives in the last say 40-50 years, they’ve created a huge dependent class needing to be “nudged”.
We are also importing reinforcements for that class by the millions.