Subj : Re: How much should I charge for fixed-price software contract? To : comp.programming From : gswork Date : Tue Aug 23 2005 02:16 am Randy Howard wrote: > Richard Heathfield wrote > (in article > ): > > > Perhaps you may not even know it's a crime. They say "ignorance of the law > > is no defence", but of course it's actually impossible to know all the laws > > of your own country, let alone those of countries you may happen to visit > > at some point. > > Especially these days. I have heard it claimed that there are > so many laws, in fact many of them are contradict each other, > that practically anyone (in the US anyway) could be arrested at > any time on something. They basically have the entire space > covered, and you are, simply be existing, guilty of something. > I wish I was joking, but I suspect it is far more true than I > like to contemplate. Although i am sure laws proliferate partly because modern societies become more complex i am also sure this is deliberate. everyone is likely to be breaking a law in some way during a given month, say. All it takes is some time to find out which one/s and then there's a reason to question you, search your house etc. Of course it is impractical and pointless to do this to an endless array of hapless citizens who may be commiting minor misdemeanours, but can be used against suspected criminals where stronger evidence is needed for there more serious crimes. Think Capone and tax evasion. At least i think that's part of it. the rest is just proliferation growing out of thousands of groups and politicians saying 'why there should be a law...' Some of the most ridiculous laws ever come from the USA's own past when the federal government wasn't as powerful and local legislation could enact all kinds of foolishness. > Even more depressingly, nobody in the US Government is going to > pay the slightest attention to my opinion either. Unless I can > come up with about 40 million registered voters that all loudly > and violently share my opinion after waking up from their > television and high-fructose corn syrup induced coma, the feds > couldn't care less. It's all part of their plan to help us, > because they are convinced that they know better than we do how > we should live our own lives. Were doing politics on comp.programming again - i don't mind, we're deep in-thread and its interesting. > > > But I think your civil liberties > > groups might be able to do something to mitigate its effects. I mean, > > chucking a guy into the clink for writing program code in another country? > > Weird. > > Civil liberties groups don't care about much beside minority > rights today. Interest groups of all kinds focus on the group of interest to them, unsuprisingly. Using a simplistic illustration - if there were 10 people in a population of 100000 who could form a pressure group to get themselves a benefit out of the government from taxpayers at a cost of $100k they have plenty of incentive to go ahead and do it. The actual people who pay will individually lose $1 each and amidst everything drawing on their attention will unlikely raise much resistance - especially when the interest group can also place their argument effectively in the media, shame politicians, look cute - whatever. The same goes for laws - a particular group or industry decides "there should be a law..." and goes ahead, the average effect on each citizen is small and not easy to understand, so it gets passed. It's fairly understandable that people generally spend more time choosing a dvd player or a holiday than researching and challenging this law or that state handout - the effect of their personal decisions on their life are easier to understand and in fact greater than each individual law or tax alteration. The cumulative effect of laws and taxes on everyone is enormous of course, but it consists of so many little grains that most folks wouldn't know where to start untangling it. You could model this proliferation in a computer program (yippee, on topic again!) but without barriers and 'push back' forces it just explodes exponentially. You'd need to factor in push-back from voters, some politicians, the economy and the threat of revolution. .