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To: watcher1
So which country has the most laws regulating its citizenry? After looking high and low I discovered that the country with the most laws—not just today, but in all of history is...geez Louise, it’s the United States. We not only have the most laws in all of history, but we also turn out more new laws and regulations to manage our people every single year than most countries turn out in decades.

The number of laws and regulations on the books is absolutely staggering, this is true. We have a system of lawmaking that is warped by societal expectations so that any particular legislator is accounted "successful" only if he or she gets new laws passed.

However, it is foolish to count up the raw number of laws on the books and draw the simplistic conclusion that the more number of laws there are, the less free we are. Logically that would mean the ideal state of "freedom" is to be found in a society that has no laws, i.e., a state of anarchy.

Anyone who cast into and survives a state of anarchy will readily tell you that anarchy provides the least amount of freedom to a people.

Freedom is much more than the state of being able theoretically to do anything one chooses to do. It is the state of being able to live, prosper, and find happiness among one's fellow citizens. In a civilized society a framework of laws that are applicable to everyone is absolutely essential to that end. It can well be argued that the more complex as society becomes, the more laws are necessary to properly channel and control the complex forces at work in that society to free up the citizen to live happily and prosper within it.

The trick is find that state of equipoise between necessary laws that actually maximize the freedom of a people, and unnecessary and countereffective laws that unduly restrict and infantalize them.

55 posted on 08/28/2002 6:46:05 AM PDT by Kevin Curry
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To: Kevin Curry
However, it is foolish to count up the raw number of laws on the books and draw the simplistic conclusion that the more number of laws there are, the less free we are.
Logically that would mean the ideal state of "freedom" is to be found in a society that has no laws, i.e., a state of anarchy. - kevin curry -
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This is your idea of logic curry? - How odd, and it is no wonder you have so many problems communicating here at FR.

It is not foolish at all to count up the raw number of laws on the books and draw a conclusion that the more number of laws there are, the less free we are.

Logically, the ideal state of "freedom" is to be found in a society that has basic laws regarding criminal conduct and a stable court system based on trial by jury, to enforce violations.

To revert to, and restore such a system, we must first 'kill' ALL the lawyers.
[sarcasum]

80 posted on 08/28/2002 1:30:02 PM PDT by tpaine
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