Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version nyu B notes v1.5 12/10/84; site acf4.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!acf4!mms1646
From: mms1646@acf4.UUCP (Michael M. Sykora)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Financing the government of a free society
Message-ID: <1340187@acf4.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Jun-85 15:19:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: acf4.1340187
Posted: Wed Jun 12 15:19:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Jun-85 05:13:31 EDT
References: <3841@alice.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 37

>/* baba@spar.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS) /  2:12 pm  Jun 11, 1985 */

> 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.
>

>Doesn't this mean that the poor are thus going to be denied
>the protection of contract enforcement?  Justice for those 
>who can afford it is nothing new.

No.  What type of contract would a poor person engage in?  I suspect
the most common kind would be one for employment.  If it was worth it
to the employer he could pay the fee for the employee.  If not, the
employee could pay it out of his salary.  If the employee could not
afford the fee, he would have to look for another job.  If the
employee could not find another job, he would either have to take the job
without the insurance of contract enforcement, or he could rely on
charity to pay it.  Also, if people wanted to contribute to a
contract enforcement agency that would provide free enforcement for
the poor, that would be an excellent way of giving charity.


>				Baba

						Mike Sykora