Re: What to call "Econ-Libertarians"?
Daniel C. Burton (dburton@ocf.berkeley.edu)
23 Oct 1997 04:05:51 GMT
Seth David Schoen <schoen@uclink4.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:
: From: "Daniel C. Burton" <dburton@.berkeley.edu>
: >Strangely enough, I've noticed that, though it's almost impossible to
: >prove natural rights arguments on positive grounds, if you turn things
: >around and make argue negativel, moral arguments can be mildly effective.
: >For example: Instead of "Income taxation is wrong because it violates
: >individual liberty," try "It would be wrong if you came and took your
: >neighbor's money personally, so why should it suddenly become right if
: >it's done through the government? Why should government agents be judged
: >on moral terms any differently from anyone else?"
: The standard reply is "Social Contract!" (including the exclamation point).
That is one of the best responses to my argument, but then you can
challenge them to prove that anyone ever voluntarily agreed to enter into
such a contract. ("I never agreed to the terms of that contract. Show
me a copy with my signature on it!") Pretty soon it will become apparent
that this "social contract" is dissimilar to all other things called
"contracts" in that you normally have to agree to them voluntarily in the
full posession of faculties of reason.
If they actually concede that you might not have agreed to the contract,
they may still say that then society has no obligations to uphold your
rights, but you can point out that if you're analogizing "society" to
another party in voluntary contracts, then it still doesn't necessarily
have the right to steal your money or imprison you, because no one else
has the right to do that just out of your failure to sign a contract with
them.
I had great fun arguing about this with an anarcho-capitalist, back before
I was a libertarian and actually believed in social contracts. Believe
me, it's almost impossible for any normal person to prove the existence of
social contracts on absolute positive grounds. You'd have to be a
philosophy major or something to even attempt that.
Lysander Spooner (one of the good old anarchists of the 1850's) actually
produced a good refutation of the idea of social contracts. It's called
"No Treason: No. VI, The Constitution of No Authority." (I haven't read
it yet. I should when I have time.)