Or at least that's the premise of the book, "Three Felonies A Day" by Harvey Silverglate and Alan Dershowitz.

From Amazon: "The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. "

[link to www.amazon.com]

I used to work for a state environmental agency. The rules were enormously complex, especially the hazardous and solid waste rules. One of the complaints from the "regulated community" was that there was no consistency from one office to another in how the rules were interpreted and applied because even the agency staff didn't understand their own regulations. Nor did they understand the regulations of other state and federal agencies - we were fined by OSHA for non-compliance with workplace regs.

The bottom line is that we are drowning in idiotic laws, rules, and regulations and it is by the design of our politicians, all of whom commit at LEAST 3 felonies a day, but exempt themselves from the mess they've created.