Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site alice.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!mhuxt!mhuxr!ulysses!allegra!alice!ark
From: ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Financing the government of a free society
Message-ID: <3841@alice.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Jun-85 01:18:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.3841
Posted: Sun Jun  9 01:18:25 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Jun-85 21:01:01 EDT
References: <1340148@acf4.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 18

One plausible method I have heard of financing the government
of a free society would be for the government to charge
for one of the services it provides: enforcement of contracts.

To wit:  if you and I sign a contract, and we want to be able
to go to court to force compliance with the contract, we must
pay some fee up front for that service.  If we are willing to
gamble on each others' reputations, we are free to decline the
service.  The government would set the fee as it wished; there
would be some level that would maximize income and that's
where the fee would presumably be pegged.  The fact that the
service is optional would keep it from getting too expensive.
Since there would be no way to enforce a contract otherwise,
people would have plenty of incentive to use it.

This plan has several advantages: you get what you pay for,
government financing is voluntary, and there's a built-in
incentive against abuse.