From: "Charles Brown"
Here are a couple of thought experiments and survey questions:
One set of laws says that if convicted or found liable for breaking certain other laws , a person must pay a fine, go to jail, or pay damages civily or obey injunctive relief. If there were no police enforcing jails and prisons to enforce these punishments and remedies, would you voluntarily, say, pay a parking ticket, or go to jail for 90 days ( stay in there on your own voluntarily)for "disorderly conduct" or " driving without a license" ? Do you know anyone who would , out of respect for the procedures by which these laws were passed just, hey , do self-enforcement ?
Shawn had a few too many drinks and was acting silly in public. Shawn will just go right down to the City Hall and pay a $100.00 fine. And we can save the court costs of $25.00 because, we cut out the middle man , the court. And Shawn was drinking beer at the baseball game, and on the way back to the car, you know, had to ... And, so Shawn is giving another $100 to the public treasury to pay for urinating in public. Shawn writes the tickets on himself in a citizen's self arrest. He adds a $20 tip to show his love for Lady Liberty.
Or Citizen A was driving his car negligently, carelessly, and his negligence caused injury to another person. He knows full well that he was being careless. He regrets it but, he knows he was. So, he just voluntarily sends $4000.00 to the injured person, because he has so much respect for the way Judge Cardoza was influenced by democratic procedures or embodied democratic procedures when he derived the doctrine of foreseeability and the Palsgraf test for negligence.
Or so and so, made $1,000 from putting on a Yard sale, and so she voluntarily sends $300 of it to the federal government and other amounts to the state and city out of respect for the procedures by which the Internal Revenue Code, and other tax laws were passed and repassed and repassed...
Worker X ends up fired from her job because of some outrageously dirty tricks pulled by her boss. But the law is the employment at will doctrine by which it is legal for the boss to do this. So Worker X just voluntarily leaves her job and enters a life of poverty and destitution because the law has been established by the eminently American democratic procedures W so deeply respects.
Assume we leave all the U.S. laws on the books, there through democratic procedures , but we are going to rescind all the punishments , penalties and remedies for them. Everybody is now on the honor code as far as obeying the law. All enforcement is self-enforcement, with some custom and non-violent peer pressure.
Who here believes that compliance with the law will remain the same in general ?
Who here will continue to adhere to all laws on the "books" ?
Who here thinks most other people will comply with all the laws on the books ?
Lets start naming some specific "laws" that people "obey".
Stop light Prohibition on murder Urinating in public Driving on the right side of the street Income tax Disorderly conduct Cabaret license Anti-dumping laws Drinking under age Larceny Offering to engage Child support Non-payment of rent Public nudity Possession of controlled substances Counterfeiting Driving with a license Driving with insurance Street peddler license Michigan state law prohibiting strikes by public employees Unfair labor practices Adultery ( felony still on the books in Michigan) Fiduciary duties Negligence Employment at will doctrine