…is the coercive power of the government. From this morning’s Post Express:

Tickets for expired car registrations usually don’t result in jail time. Unless, of course, that thicket is a driver’s 76th. Valerie Ortiz Sanchez, 31, was arrested on Monday during a routine traffic stop in Harlingen, Texas, when officers discovered she had 76 outstanding traffic warrants and nearly $19,000 in unpaid fines and court fees dating back nine years. Sanchez was arrested on charges of having an expired car registration, no insurance and driving with an expired license, police said. She remained in the Harlingen jail Wednesday, and it was unclear whether she had a lawyer.

The Express titled the article “Libertarian Protests Oppressive DMV,” because, well, the people who write headlines over there seem to revel in being too cute by a half.

I won’t argue with the validity of (some of) the laws she broke–requiring a minimum of insurance for drivers makes a lot of sense economically, as there’s unarguably a bit of a knowledge problem when it comes to judging the safety of other drivers on the road. Indeed insurance, rather than a capricious drivers’ licensing regime, makes a lot more sense from a market standpoint: require that everyone be insured, and then let the insurance industry work out who gets to drive and who doesn’t, which cars are safe enough, etc. I, for one, would be much more comfortable knowing that my fellow drivers have insurance than knowing that they had the endurance to stand in line at the DMV for 2 hours. Point is, I’m not arguing over of the laws in question.

But think about it: behind every law, no matter how trivial, is the threat of incarceration, and behind the government’s ability to incarcerate you is a gun. It’s that simple. The laws Ms. Sanchez broke may very well be laws that deserve to be backed up with coercive force–I don’t want to argue these particular laws. But it sure would be nice if lawmakers thought about things in those terms when they passed the laws, if, when deliberating they said, “Is this a law, that if flouted enough, should result in someone going to jail? And if they resist going to jail, is this a law that is worth physical coercion?”

I suspect we’d have a lot fewer laws if elected officials were encouraged to step back and realize that what’s backing up their smoking bans, fishing licensure regimes, and jaywalking penalties is a Man with a gun.

Filed under: Behind Every Law..., The Dismal Science, Profiles in Governance