Following the theme of analogies
Imagine in your local town you had one restaurant in which to eat. When you enter a waiter seats you at a table and takes your order and then, at the appropriate moment, brings the bill and a means of taking payment.
Once a week you go to this restaurant and always the same routine. Waiter takes your order and then later brings your bill. Sometimes, if the waiter is busy serving another table, you get up and approach the tills where you settle up. It's great! The service is lovely. They thank you for your custom and see you out the door with a smile "come again".
You happen to be away one weekend but are thrilled to see the owners of your local restaurant own another one in the town you are visiting.
You go there and are greeted by a waiter. The waiter takes your order but later does not come back with a bill or means of payment. So you wait a little longer until you finally decide to pay at the till.
You approach the till and join the back of queue, card in hand.
Someone then taps you on the shoulder and says
"Excuse me can I take your name and address, you have eaten here with the intent to avoid payment"
To which you are furious. How dare they??
The inspector (as we shall call them) then points to a wall of pictures and says
"What does that say?"
Looking carefully, in amongst various pieces of advertisement, you see a yellow notice you'd never seen before which says that payment for meals must be made at the first opportunity to do so and that not doing so is prosecutable with a potential criminal record.
"Wait a moment. This is my first opportunity to pay?"
To which the inspector points to a notice board at the far end of the room. You walk closer wandering what they could mean when you notice something behind the notice board. It's some form of retro machine. It's covered in dirt and placed underneath a bright light so the screen is barely visible. You approach the machine in curiosity and, getting closer, you see just two items listed on the screen which just so happen to be the two you'd ordered and across the top reads "MEAL TICKET VENDING MACHINE". Gotcha!
This is how it feels to have grown up in an area where the practice for everybody is to purchase on board the train with the conductor. No conductor or rail staff ever mention that it is not acceptable or that at another station, that has a ticket machine, you should buy before you board. You have never known it was illegal to board without a ticket. This is how the world looks for many and if you are not from this world in may be hard to comprehend but I don't think people from this world should be treated like criminals and when, for the first time in their lives, they are told it is a criminal offence to board without a ticket I don't think it is fair that they are immediately threatened with prosecution in court and a potential criminal record unless they pay an 'administration settlement'.
All the best
Darren