Cultural Offering is on the story.
The non-compliance issue is this: We are all violators now. We are all law breakers. With 6,125 new regulations in 90 days we are bound to violate one of them without knowing on a regular basis. Yet we should have known. The tax code, environmental restrictions, traffic infringements, food safety laws, something. . .anything.
We are responsible, as citizens, for staying aware of our laws, right? So we break a law. And once we do that, doesn't it demean the other laws? Even just a little? Maybe a lot. After a while, the idea that we might violate another more serious law becomes more palatable, or perhaps more acceptable so long as we are not caught. And worse, the questions "can we do that?" and "are we allowed?" start replacing "should we do that?" and "is that the right decision?"
thanks to Peter Steiner and the New Yorker for the cartoon
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I have long contended that the Carter era 55 mile per hour national speed limit did more to harm the desire to be a "law-abiding citizen" than anything in the second half of the 20th century. (Prohibition probably has it beat in the contest for the entire century.)
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