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From: peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Taxation is theft
Message-ID: <210@graffiti.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Sep-85 15:58:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: graffiti.210
Posted: Tue Sep 17 15:58:11 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 01:19:05 EDT
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Organization: The Power Elite, Houston, TX
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A few comments on social contracts from one who is in the process of reneg-
otiating his:

> > > You are free to remain within or
> > >leave the social contract agreed to by you by your residency in the US.
> > 
> > Please note the implicit assumption that some condition into which
> > you were born is considered equivalent to your signing a contract.
> > Mr. Huybenz might as well have said "You are free to remain within 
> > or leave the contract of servitude agreed to by you by your being black."
> > (to leave by the same means, altering the condition of your birth).
> 
> I think I'm going to treasure a number of your responses (like the above
> paragraph) that I'm answering here, because they are precisely the kinds
> of responses I've given you as examples of unjustness of libertaria.
> 
> Let's put aside (for the moment) the problem of new citizens (which
> hypothetical libertarias don't seem to handle well.)  You are now an
> adult.  You can come and go as you will.  So why isn't the social
> contract entirely voluntary?

In the absence of a libertaria to emigrate to you can't regard
the social contract as voluntary. There does not exist the option of
negotiating with your feet that you seem to assume. I have come to the
states because it is the nearest approach to a free society that I have
been able to find.

It is interesting to note that whenever a Libertaria attempts to form, for
example in southern California, it gets squashed by the state which insists
on enforcing the social contract on a group of people who have unanimously
rejected it. This happens to both left-wing and right-wing Libertaria.

> Guess what: we already have most of that.  I've seen quite a number of
> reports from many sources evaluating the relative merits of the 50 states
> (and numerous nations) in all the categories above.  Moving between
> states is as effortless as you wish.  Moving between many nations is only
> a little more difficult.

Speaking as one who has recently moved between nations, let me just note that
moving between nations is an extremely difficult task even for a country as
free as this. I would like to suggest you try it some time.

> But keep in mind that the provider of services
> should not be coerced into accepting you as a customer for one of their
> social contracts.  If they don't like your race or nationality or religion
> or language or job, they should be able to arbitrarily refuse to make a
> contract with you.  So you mustn't complain if you cannot get to be a
> resident or citizen of any particular nation.

And what happened to "free and equal" partners?

> > Try taking your own words at face value, Mike.  What if government
> > really *were* a matter of voluntary contract?  If you find it 
> > impossible to say what you mean, have a go at meaning what you say.
> 
> In the US and a number of other nations, government effectively is a
> matter of voluntary contract (for adults.)  You still haven't shown me
> any evidence to the contrary.

Try renegotiating your social contract by any means, and see how voluntary it
really is.