> Why doesn’t the government actually just enforce rules? Because there is no government to enforce the rules. Only a loose aggregation of individuals, each wi

> Why doesn’t the government actually just enforce rules? Because there is no government to enforce the rules. Only a loose aggregation of individuals, each with their own personal interests. Those interests often include things like, "I don't want to do anything that might anger people and lose me the next election," or, "If I cite someone for this, I am going to have even more paperwork to do when I get back to the station." This way of thinking about how civic institutions behave becomes particularly important in a country like the USA whose cultural values tend to place individual freedom above many other things, including civic duty.