What happens when people figure out how to beat the system?
Once enough people get away with circumventing the rules, the legislature passes another law, and the system has to try to correct it. This cycle keeps feeding on itself: as soon as a workaround is found, the system must respond.
Les explains that this pattern is not limited to farmers; everybody is always out to beat the system. He recalls how farmers, himself included, could sit in a coffee shop and on a napkin figure out a way around a new farm plan, beating the government almost every time. But as soon as enough people get away with it, the legislature has to pass another law, and it just keeps feeding on itself. Les calls this the human race: as soon as they figure out a way to beat the system, the system has to try to correct it. He adds that high tech makes it easier to rob the system through computers, and counterfeiters could have a heyday if no one stops it. In the passage he is teaching, that was all they could think about—how to be wicked in some other way, so the earth was corrupt and filled with violence.