From: Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Date: Fri Jan 15 1999 - 13:20:47 MST
hal@rain.org wrote:
> Distinctions between governments and mutual agreements go by the wayside
> if we assume that everyone involved voluntarily agreed to live by the
> rules of their society. Newborn children are a sticky issue with this
> approach, since they are born into society without agreeing to anything.
> Generally you can consider that while minors they are bound to obey
> their parents, and then when older they have a choice between accepting
> the rules of society or leaving.
This is a convenient fiction for people who like big government, but it
doesn't have much to do with reality. No government ever asks its citizens
to agree to its rules - you are stuck with them whether you like it or not.
Leaving is also an illusory option - there is literally no place on Earth
where you can go to escape the rule of bog government. Besides, you can
only leave if the government lets you - and the bigger it gets, the less
likely it is to let you go.
I would be the first to agree that a group of people setting up a new
society in ungoverned space should be able to create any social contract
they like. However, here on Earth we are stuck with a system no one agreed
to, that no one is allowed to leave. IMO, that puts important constraints
on the policies that we can endorse with a clear conscience.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com
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