I think that in an ideal society, everyone would follow their own moral values and laws wouldn’t even be needed. That’s probably not achievable, but we can at least try to approach it.

I think the root of immorality is the prescriptive morality which is commonplace today. People only act pseudo-moral because either:

• They are afraid of punishment (fully selfish reason)
• God, the law, or whoever else said so (deferral to authority)
• “Society would collapse” if they didn’t (still a selfish justification)

in reality, very few actually have internal moral values. As soon as those reasons disappear, they see no reason not to act immorally. Alternatively, they follow this imposed morality so strictly, that they don’t notice when it leads them to immoral actions (take for example religious fundamentalism or fascist regimes).

The solution is of course education, but our current education systems are terribly suited to producing moral people.

It wasn’t really meant to be, my opinion is that following the law for its own sake is a form of slave morality and a betrayal of one’s own moral principles, but I guess the meme is vague enough to be interpreted any which way.