From a reader:

The idea that “…many Americans just want to make the phone stop ringing with as little effort on their part as possible” is sort of anathema to the whole libertarian ideal. Its like a baby crying for the nanny state to give it food or change its diaper. Adults take responsibility for themselves. In this case that means buying gizmos or implementing changes so that whats out there only gets in here when we want it to. The problem is that “many Americans” have become so accustomed to the State changing their diapers that they can only lie there and cry until someone else (the State) handles the problem. Its a good thing cars were invented before the nanny state was in full effect or “many Americans” would be complaining about having to do all that starting and steering and pedal pushing.

My response I agree with that pretty much entirely. But this should show you how out-of-step the pure libertarians are with mainstream America and how unrealistic their rhetoric usually is. The reason I keep coming at this is that ever since Chris Caldwell’s anti-spam piece and my column on it, I’ve been trying to think of practical strategies for not resorting to government solutions when technological and material advancement creates new versions of old “problems” traditionally “fixed” by government.

From internet porn in libraries to spam to telemarketers, technology is exposing the ossified nature of government bureaucracy. What I’m interested in is whether or not there is a realistic political strategy for keeping Americans from demanding that the government fix these new problems. If that’s possible, then government can be shrunk over time as the society outgrows it. Unfortunately, I’m not optimistic about the project’s chances.