[whakim]

You stated categorically that "society and legislators should only forbid harmful action" rather than "compelling helpful action" and then chose a particularly nonsensical example of "compelling helpful action" to prove your point. There are plenty of (much more realistic) examples of "compelling helpful action" which don't lead to "absurd conclusions."

[s1artibartfast]

Yes, I think it is a categorical truth.

Yes, I chose an extreme and absurd example to illustrate the point. I said as much in the post.

I agree that there are many realistic examples of compelling action. If you provide some I would probably disagree that the government should be doing them.