A society can take that analyzing of problems to an extreme and everything is turned into a problem, offense, and a syndrome--which is the state of affairs we are in now. And we all know how people with a leftie mindset want to solve societal problems, offenses, and syndromes real and imagined--more government. See post above regarding the nursery rhyme police in England. The leftists here and abroad have set up a society where many people are no longer in intact families. Single mommy has to work and child has very little to no daddy influence and maybe very little or decent mommy influence. Child doesn't flourish and his options are limited. He might turn to illegal activities. He's a burden on society. How do we solve this growing burden on society? More government programs and solutions. It's a horrible downward cycle, and I think Mark Steyn believes that it might be very hard if not impossible to overcome when coupled with external and internal enemies who are anticipating and/or plotting your demise.
I never meant to imply that I thought gov't was the solution to any problem! Society does have problems, and sometimes laws are needed to fix them. But that's a far cry from a nanny gov't solution.
But we do need to have dialogue about what is really a problem and what is not. Per your example, I'd say the number of children in single parent families (esp. where the mother is little more than a child herself) *is* a problem. I'd also say that it's not a problem that gays can't marry.
The gov't has had 40 years to prove they can't fix the problem of single parent families. All of us have to figure out how to fix that problem.
In the example I gave of gay marriage, if we agree it isn't a problem, our laws are sufficient.
But in both cases, we either need to discuss it, or leave it up to gov't officials to decide. I'd rather discuss it.