> a lay person has to follow all of the laws

That is obviously untrue. Why do you feel the need to make obviously false claims to support your position?

You need to obey the UCMJ?

You need to obey campaign finance laws?

You need to obey the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act?

You need to obey state law as incorporated by the Assimilative Crimes Act in jurisdictions you've never been to?

You need to obey HIPAA? The Privacy Act? The Freedom of Information Act?

A huge number of laws simply do not apply to you if you aren't engaged in a particular activity. E.g., you are not a covered entity for HIPAA unless you work for a medical provider or insurer. And a huge proportion of those criminal penalties only apply to government employees, not to average civilians at all.

You need to be aware of that before making decisions in life though. You also need to be aware of them to know how others around you can legally act.

Also, there's the problem that you don't know what is written in the laws that you don't know. Maybe it does pertain to you, but without knowing the law you can't know that.