The following is an off the cuff gross generalization of societies (large communities) and their laws, and is not a discussion of any law in particular.
This post also dangerously nears the realm of politics; and since the moderator finds such realm to be problematic, I shall endeavor to keep this discussion free of leanings either left or right.
Kevin; in my view, one reason we have such laws is that at some point in the past we as a society noted that unscrupulous people were taking advantage of others, and we as a society decided that having some rules would be a good idea. While the raffle discussed here may indeed be among members who are enlightened and admirable, so many in the past were not, and thus we as a society felt that some rules were needed.
It's somewhat similar to the fact that you are probably an amazingly astute and safe driver; but experience has shown us that there are quite a few others who are not nearly as astute and safe as you are, and that thus it's probably a good idea to have traffic laws.
And yes the laws we end up with turn out to be a burden on some of us. And the reason they get so convoluted is that each time we the people pass a law for the betterment of all, there will be those with money who will find very good attorneys to find loopholes for them; thus we are continually having to patch loopholes.
The speed limit signs on the side of the road would perhaps be more reasonable if they said Kevin and Dave - no speed limit needed, all others 55. But it might be a bit impractical. Thus we have to live with that particular burden as members of a society that overall benefits from speed limit laws.
I'm not an attorney, but in my work I deal with tax laws all the time. The recent requirement that you obtain and retain a receipt for a charitable contribution over a certain dollar amount was not instituted because the IRS thought the printer industry needed to sell more toner. Unfortunately there was a significant problem with some of our fellow citizens lying about their charitable contributions so that they would bear less of the cost of maintaining our country than the rest of us.
It's kind of like when you're at your computer and a spam email arrives in your email selling meds and you know that people are being taken advantage of, and you wonder why in the world can't these people be stopped. Or perhaps an even better example is when your computer gets hit by a virus or trojan horse.
There are unscrupulous and selfish people who will try to take advantage of the rest of us. Thus we as a society find it necessary to have rules, laws, the purpose of which is to make the functioning of our society better for all of us. And yes, you are right; the laws in many areas have become so complex as to be incomprehensible. But I don't think it is because we have failed as a democracy. I think it is more because of the actions of those who would subvert the law for their own selfish ends no matter the cost to others. For to allow such anti-social greed run rampant behavior to go unchecked would indeed be a failure of our democracy and personal freedom.
But yes, clearly there are laws on the books that should be revisited from time to time, cleaned up, rewritten, readdressed.
Of course that's just my off the cuff gross generalization view. Others can quite understandably have differing perspectives. And in fact, I'm sure my own perspective on such a complex and voluminous subject changes all the time. I guess we as a society try to do the best we can for all of us. It's cumbersome, and at times it's not very pretty; but we as a people do care for each other, so we continue to do our best for each other.
