Justice & Law Quote by Will Rogers

Rogers lands the punch by pretending to be practical. If the state can’t “check crime,” he suggests, maybe it should just put it on the books, slap on a tax stamp, and watch the problem die of bureaucratic suffocation. It’s an absurd proposal delivered in the calm tone of a budget memo, which is exactly why it works: the joke isn’t that legalization would solve crime, but that America’s default tool for governing is paperwork and revenue.

The subtext is a two-way roast. Law enforcement looks impotent, chasing symptoms instead of causes. Legislators look opportunistic, treating public disorder as a potential income stream. Rogers is poking at a familiar civic hypocrisy: we denounce vice in public while quietly relying on it to fund the machine or lubricate the economy. The line also carries a warning about moral posturing. If the only argument against something is “it’s illegal,” then legality becomes less a moral boundary than a policy choice - and policy choices can be flipped when money enters the room.

Context matters. Rogers is talking from the Prohibition-era atmosphere, when the attempt to outlaw alcohol didn’t erase demand; it professionalized criminal networks, corrupted officials, and made “crime” feel like an industry. His quip compresses that cultural lesson into a neat paradox: when enforcement fails, the state’s answer is often to monetize. The cynicism isn’t despairing; it’s a folksy spotlight on how quickly principle gets rebranded as a tax policy.