Don Quixote and Science Fiction

At the end of a defence of his knight errantry Don Quixote exclaims at great length that knights errant are outside all judicial authority, possess privileges and prerogatives in excess of any noble, never pay taxes, never pay for their clothes, never pay a bar or hotel bill, and so on. They are outside the rules of society, high or low. How many heroes and heroines in science fiction are outside these rules too! That can't be the future, can it?

We have to be a bit more subtle in our imagining.