if you accept the premise that "work multiplies to fill available time", I think you can apply the concept to the government as well. We have 535 members of Congress sitting around all day looking for things to do (other that raise money for their election campaigns) And most of them are driven by the thoughts "what can I do for my country", "what can I do for my party" or "what can I do to get reeelected" (not necessarily in that order).
It's an easy step to come up with an idea "let's give free childcare"...who could be against that? Or, "let's give out stamps so people can buy food", and it goes on an on. Voters like "free" stuff..we even refer to European healthcare, for example, as being free without telling everyone how much higher their taxes might be to pay for the "free" stuff.
For whatever reason we've lost the plot on balancing, or even coming close to balancing the budget. We still operate as if we were the richest country in the world, when in fact we're leaving our grandchildren and great grandchildren a humongous debt.
We seem to have even given up attention to deficits. Even the new "wealth tax" proposal just takes the money and creates new or more extensive programs.
Like I said "lost the plot"
