Actually if the government is in charge of your heath care, they could theoretically force you to eat broccoli if they determined that it was necessary as part of a disease prevention Protocol. They could fine you or jail you for not eating it. They could even force you into the hospital and force feed it to you.
Tyranny knows no bounds.
I agree. Any government that can tell you to buy this or that can order you to do just about anything.
And, there’s the precedent of accepting that the government can order you to take particular acts. As those multiply over the years, the shorthand explanation that will get accepted is: “The government told us to.”
When that becomes common in thought and language, any speech about freedom is mere pretense.
People will come to believe eventually that the role of government is to tell them what to do.
The problem with that argument is that non-participation in any market affects those who do participate. The failure of people to buy Chevy Volts, for example, surely affects the price for those who do, as well as affecting the workers, who manufacturer it, etc.. The failure to purchase broccoli affects the market for broccoli, etc..
As Clement said, it is an argument with no limiting principle.