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When you have too many laws, you have no laws. I hate to post something so pithy on HN -- we usually do longer comments here. The fact is, compexity in the le
by DanielBMarkham 14y ago
When you have too many laws, you have no laws.
I hate to post something so pithy on HN -- we usually do longer comments here.
The fact is, compexity in the legal system only creates a system where those in power can do whatever they want while those out of power (the middle class and poor, mostly), are at the mercy of chance. That's not meant as an indictment of the American political system, that's meant as an indictment of the idea that a complex society requires complex rules to operate. If we could kill that idea, a lot of this other stuff would clear itself up. But I'm not taking any bets.
- oinksoft 14y agoFurther, you have a class of individuals whose job is to make new laws (Congress and its machinations, as well as the state and municipal equivalents). If they don't make laws, the perception is that they are not doing their job. It was the same frustration with the parlements and the resulting legal culture that helped ferment the French Revolution.
- DanielBMarkham 14y agoThere are some great parallels with the FR here -- more and more mob unrest, little education as to why and how the political system works the way it does, an overpowering debt that resists easy solutions, endless negotiations and patchwork fixes,etc.