Reply to post: Re: The trouble with the British...

A floppy filled with software worth thousands of francs: Techie can't take it, customs won't keep it. What to do?

juice

Re: The trouble with the British...

> What would you prefer, she asks, the inconvenience of a trip to the police station, a 2 hour wait in a roomful of drunks, druggies and pickpockets, a load of paperwork and a $50 fine or a $10 on the spot "fine" to the traffic cop with no paperwork and you're back on your way in a matter of minutes?

There's so very many problems with this attitude, it's hard to know where to begin.

In the first instance, if you know that you can generally break the laws with impudence, you're likely to become increasingly blase about them. This time, it might just be a $10 "fine" for running a red light. The next time, it might be $40 to the cop and $200 to the guy whose car you hit, to cover the cost of repairing his car door. Hey, no reason to get the insurance companies involved, right?

But the time after that, it might be a dead kid on the floor under your car, because you weren't paying enough attention. Better hit a cash machine to pay that one off!

The next problem with this is that it's not just "victimless" crimes which can be bought off, but cascades all the way up to racist attacks, murder and rape.

And it also leads to problems in the wider society, such as protection rackets, etc.

I've no doubt that there's been times in my life where things could have been smoothed over with a little application of hard cash. But for me, that's more than balanced out by the benefits of living in a society where money doesn't trump the law!

(even though if we're honest, money always has something of an advantage, even if it only lies in the fact that it means you can afford better lawyers. And the UK's reputation is looking increasingly tarnished, thanks in no small part to the way that the currently incumbent government is throwing money around with some increasingly tenuous justifications. But still...)

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