I recently wrote about a couple of anecdotes on my family’s history as landlords. I got to the end and realized that the real problem with the landlord/ tenant conflict is the fact that the modern solution to every problem is to pass new laws.
The vast majority of people in the United States are in what is broadly called the “middle class.” Generally middle class is defined based on comparative income.
When I discuss the middle class, however, I want to redefine it just a little bit to focus less on money and more on attitude toward the law. If you accept my definition, the law only restricts the middle class. The upper class easily buy their way around the laws. And the lower class have nothing that these new laws can take from them.
Obviously there are people who have become very wealthy and still have respect for the spirit of the law, for right and wrong. And obviously there are people who have no money at all who are very diligently working within the law to improve their own position and that of their family. Those people are all in my version of the middle class and they are very much the victims of the law as it is currently formulated.
The upper class I have a problem with is the people who have money without morals, the people who do whatever they want, take whatever they want, then sic their lawyers on anyone who has a problem with it.
The lower class I have a problem with are the bitter, resentful people with nothing tethering them to community or society, who blame everyone else for every one of their problems and take their anger out on every person they can reach.
And every time a new law is passed, the upper class flaunts it, the lower class ignores it, and the middle class wastes more and more time filing paperwork, paying fines, and taking the slings and arrows cast by the other classes as they repose behind the wall that the law provides them.
I don’t want there to be any mistaking my position, I believe very strongly in the rule of law. The law must be enforced, enforcement must be blind. These are ideals that can never be truly reached, but nevertheless must be pursued in the real world to as great an effect as possible.
My only point is this: for The Law to be just, laws must be few and simple.
As a rule of thumb, the average citizen should be able to implicitly know all the laws that they might be expected to follow. Anyone being taxed should be able to recite all of tax law. Anyone reasonably capable of running a business should be able to pass a test on any aspect of business law.
Laws are the rules of the game of life. And I have never enjoyed playing a game with rules too complicated to understand.
