> "you would rather limit damage and trust peoples' responsibility"

True, but most American cultural pathologies are rooted in mistrust of others, a mistrust which is itself often rooted in one or more fears that derive from ignorance. When you are ignorant and fearful of a problem or a group of people, it's much easier to appeal to your government to do something about it rather than actually try to understand that problem or people. Trusting those people to be responsible is the last thing that occurs to you in such a state of mind.

All I'm trying to say is that this is a specific instance of a much larger trend which has been in place for a long time. I don't know how to fix it.