tripp:

Both of those excerpts - and the articles I found by searching for those terms - were very interesting reads. My question is this: How is the law not protecting the idiots who lose things? Yes, it certainly does intend to punish the scumbags like myself who would happily collect $640 (or $30k) off the ground and pocket it - but why does it intend to do such punishing? The intent is to make people like myself less likely to simply pocket the money, and more likely to turn it over to the proper authorities. Thus, the ultimate intent is to protect the morons that lose things from themselves. You can probably make the argument that the law protects the moron from the scumbags like me, but if the moron weren't to lose said item in the first place, the scumbag wouldnt be in a position to appropriate the item.

Sorting out my jibber jabber, I'm simply saying this: If I managed to drop $1000 in $20s somewhere, I wouldn't expect to get it back. I shouldn't. I screwed up, its my fault. But the government says, hold up, wait, yasher, we need to protect you from yourself! So, if you drop $1000 in $20s, anyone that finds that money is obligated to turn it into the police - because you're a moron and need to be protected from yourself.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

I've gotta get to work, but perhaps I'll have a useful analogy when I return. These laws - applied to this sort of case - just reek.

This should be interesting,
yasher