FSK’s Guide to Reality
October 1, 2010
Statists say “By living in the USA, you consent to the social contract. If you don’t like it, then leave.”
The fallacy of “If you don’t like it, then leave!” is that other countries are just as bad or worse. There are international treaties. There are laws restricting immigration. State insiders in various countries collude to keep the slaves in line.
If you take an extreme example, you could say “The Jews living in Nazi Germany consented to their own murder. The ‘social contract’ in Germany allowed it. By not fleeing, the German Jews consented to being murdered.”
Similarly, you could say “The people murdered in the Soviet Union or Communist China consented to it. The ‘social contract’ allowed it.”
In his “war crimes” trial, Saddam Hussein said “I was the absolute dictator of Iraq. By definition, everything I did was legal.” If you support “social contract” theory, you should support that argument. The social contract in Iraq said “Saddam Hussein is dictator.”
A statist would say “Those are extreme examples. The USA isn’t that evil.” The fact that the USA is not as evil as other countries, does not justify the bad things that happen. That’s like saying “I’m a good husband. I only beat my wife once per week. Other husbands do it daily.”
There is no “social contract”. If you take an extreme/accurate view, then a “social contract” can justify any evil. In the USA, I probably won’t be sent to a death camp based on my blog. The State steals more than half my labor/life via taxes. There are many laws restricting my freedom and my choices.
For example, it’s difficult/illegal for me to buy raw milk, even if I think it’s better than pasteurized milk.
It’s illegal for me to work as a doctor, because I don’t have a State permit. Even though I don’t want to work as a doctor, the AMA licensing cartel restrict my choices. I pay higher prices and get lower quality medical care, due to the State medical cartel. Under the guise of “protecting patients from bad doctors”, State parasites protect insiders. A bad doctor does not suffer from market competition. Generally, a bad doctor keeps his State license, unless he really messes up or offends State insiders. The State licensing cartel protects bad doctors who managed to jump through the hoops and get a license.
The fact that the USA is more free than other countries does not justify evils that do occur. Unfortunately, the trend in the USA is towards less freedom rather than towards more freedom.
