- a corporation housing prisoners for profit. Drug seizures alone made 6 Billion Dollars (Profit) in the last reported year, and 67% of everyone in jail (State and Federal - in the USA) is there for a non-violent drug offense. To exemplify this issue: 3 years ago a girl was killed a couple of blocks from my house by a murderer on parole from prison; the parole board stated they had to release him to make bed space for drug offenders that are required to be in prison longer than the murderer (by federal law). Lastly, to make this point - the National Motorist Association reports that in 2006 local governments made $7.5 Billion Dollars from traffic tickets, while the US DOT reports that accidents per capita has not changed since 1967 (the first reported year). A: The system of laws is a set of rules, by which a society agrees to abide, that allows them to function as a group. This is a fundamental principle of civilization. The agreement to behave in a certain way allows us to do more, because we are not constantly having to defend ourselves or our property. Laws are a formalized version of this agreement, and are necessary because of the complexity of our society. If you lived in complete isolation, laws would be unnecessary, because you would have no interaction with others. As soon as someone says "This is mine", they would have to defend it or rely on the other people agreeing