"Of course not."

"Is it that it's complicated or is there some other reason?"

"They don't expect it to work, they don't know how schools should be, they don't know that it's illegal or don't know who to complain to, they feel like complaints by people like them don't get listened to anyway, they don't have time to deal with it, they worry that the school will hear they complained and be harder on their kid..."

"Do they do that when people complain?"

"The school does not learn who filed a complaint."

"Why do they feel like complaints by people like them don't get listened to?"

"Well, often they don't, depending what they complain about. The school isn't safe, that'll get fixed instantly. The cigarette tax is too high, that's not going to get fixed because we did that for a reason. The landlord is very strict about overnight guests - well, that's not the business of law. Their disability benefits got revoked because the doctor said they were fine - well, unfortunately, we can't give disability benefits to everybody so we have to decide somehow who should get them."

"Why isn't that the business of the law?"

"Transactions between two people who have all the information they need to make decisions, and which do not affect anyone else, are not the business of law. If they don't like that landlord's rules, they can live somewhere else. If we require landlords to follow rules that we think would be nice, then housing will just get more expensive, and that is very unfair to people who would rather have cheap housing and no overnight guests than expensive housing and overnight guests."

"Why do landlords even care about overnight guests?"

"If you disallow overnight guests you will mostly get settled-down, introverted people in a stable serious relationship with the other person on the lease if they want a relationship at all, who do not have any relatives or friends who might be suddenly homeless on short notice, and that might be a thing you want as a landlord."

"Oh."

"Other landlords go 'I can charge more money if I have few or no rules about use of the property'. That's actually more common. But the law doesn't get to decide which is best. If everyone decided one way or the other, then the landlords with unpopular rules would have empty buildings and would have to change their rules. If a system is self-correcting like that it is usually bad to have the law try to change it."

"But in the meantime people would have fewer places to live because they'd be avoiding the ones that were the other way."

"Yep. They'd be likelier to share with roommates and less likely to move out of their parents' house or likelier to move back in."

Nod. "Are kids allowed to complain about schools?"

"There are not any rules about who can submit a legal complaint."

"Could schools teach people how?"

"They do. Many people are - hmm. Many people will not do an obvious thing which is clearly within their power, and which they know how to do, and which would improve their life. They just won't. You are not like that and blues in general are not like that and so it might be kind of hard to believe that about half of people are like that, but they are."

"........why?"

"I am not really sure. It is just a way people are different from one another."

"But then how do those people do anything?"

"They do lots of things! They just don't file regulatory complaints!"

"Why are complaints different from the things they do?"

"I don't know but I assume it's something new, it's not something everyone around you does, it's very slightly weird or unusual, and no one is holding your hand and walking you through it. Whereas getting a job is not weird or unusual and there are lots of people who will hold your hand and walk you through it and if you're purple you can always just show up with your friend to their work when they mention they're short on workers."