L'etat, c'est Stalin?

Jonathan Zasloff catches Cass Sunstein (and/or coauthor Richard Thaler) "Red-baiting":

[Emissions regulations] have sometimes been effective: the air is much cleaner than it was in 1970. Philosophically, however, such limitations look uncomfortably similar to Soviet-style five-year plans, in which bureaucrats in Washington announce that millions of people have to change their conduct in the next five years.

Sunstein and Thaler seem not to understand the concept of "government." If people's conduct did not need any changing, we would have no need of government.

It becomes Stalinism when failure to reach the emissions target results in one's being sent to a slave-labor camp in northern Alaska. Though I do think Sarah Palin would be a superb commandant.