[oldbrowser]

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be to-morrow." (James Madison)

It is amazing that those people in the 1700's could so accurately foresee our future problems.
Sometimes I think that all of our technology has handicapped our ability to think. Blinded us to reality.

[exDemMom]

It is amazing that those people in the 1700's could so accurately foresee our future problems.

I doubt they were foreseeing as much as describing what they had already witnessed elsewhere. Lawmakers always seem to feel the need to make more and more laws; if they don't, then they do not think they are doing their jobs. It is also a feature of society that people can always find "loopholes" that existing laws do not cover, so lawmakers must write new laws to patch up the loopholes. The progression from a simple set of laws that everyone understands to a confusing mish-mash of contradictory laws is a natural consequence of human behavior.