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From: flink@umcp-cs.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Financing the government of a free society
Message-ID: <161@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Jun-85 17:26:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.161
Posted: Wed Jun 12 17:26:08 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Jun-85 05:15:44 EDT
References: <1340148@acf4.UUCP> <3841@alice.UUCP>
Reply-To: flink@maryland.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 16

In article <3841@alice.UUCP> ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) writes:
>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.  [...]

It depends what you want to finance.  This issue was raised by
someone who wanted to know how national defense would be financed.  In
order to finance the army, the government will have to charge a fee 
that will be higher than the fees private companies charge for courts
and enforcement.  Thus, people will go to the private companies
unless the govt. is limited to police + courts (no army).
--
"Libertarians -- keeping the world safe from democracy"