Rob responds to my post on morality with a quote from Groklaw which, I think, seems to support my theory

That’s what law is for. It’s for those who have no heart or no conscience and who will do bad things if you leave it up to them. They’ll do them if they think they’ll be effective, no matter who gets hurt. They might even view the hurt as a plus. Humane, decent folks will likely do the right thing with or without a law, because they can feel for the other guy. They understand and empathize and won’t do to others what they wouldn’t like done to them. The Golden Rule, if you will. It is for the rest that societies need to establish laws, so it is clear to those without a working internal checks and balances ethics system where the acceptable line is.

Lets call the people with conscience Type C people and those without Type NC people. Although the intent of the law is to rein in the NCs, a major effect is to convert borderline Cs into NCs resulting a net loss of morality.

And, BTW, I prefer to think of Lao Tzu as an early version of me rather than the other way around.