yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Bandit bakers and the social contract


3m read
·Nov 8, 2024

A YouTube user made a two-part video in which he gave replies to claims that he associates with libertarianism. I was quickly asked to give a response. I'm busy working on the follow-up to George Ought to Help at the moment, so I'm gonna keep this brief and I'll only address what I think was his strongest argument, his strongest claim.

He tries to defend the idea of the social contract and he's talking about explicit contracts. So he has in mind the contracts where a person signs. They signed this contract at some point in their life, and the contract includes clauses that say the person will abide by the laws of the government. The position of this YouTube user was that taxation, for instance, is made legitimate when an explicit contract of this kind is signed. Although I don't believe that such contracts are legitimate, in this video I'm gonna argue a more modest position or a weak claim: that the existence of a contract signed by a person is not necessarily binding on them.

If I'm successful in doing that, then the validity of the social contract that this YouTube user assumes to exist needs to be established. So here's a hypothetical. Imagine that together with a group of bandits, I invade a remote settlement. When I get there, I kill all the bakers, and then I set up my own bakery. I make it known that anyone who dares to make bread on their own will be killed. Next, I offer the surviving residents a deal. If they sign a contract stating that they will obey any of my commands, I will agree to sell bread to them. Included in the contract is a clause that says the resident can opt to leave the settlement at any time, which absolves them from having to follow my commands.

So one day, I issue the command that all residents who sign the contract must build a temple in my honor. Does the existence of the contract mean that my command is legitimate and must be obeyed by all those wishing to stay? I don't think so. In the hypothetical situation, I was using aggression to limit the choices of the people I was offering my deal to. In other words, my aggression had put the people who signed it under duress, and in my view, the contracts that were signed under this situation are void.

They are not binding. The way a state behaves and this gang of bandits in the thought experiment, both entities used threats of violence to prevent people from producing certain goods and services. They then established themselves as monopolists regarding providing these things. They then offer people a deal: abide by our rules and enjoy our goods and services, or leave.

So I hope you agree that the bread contracts offered by the bandits do not represent legitimate and binding agreements. This means that the background presence of aggression by one of the parties to a contract is important in determining whether the contract is valid. The presence of aggression can mean that such an agreement isn't binding.

I've shown how the state behaves in an analogous way to the bandits with regards to the use of threats of force to maintain a monopoly position. It remains to be demonstrated how the social contract between states and its subjects is meaningfully ethically distinct from the bandits' bread contracts. While this hasn't been established, the case for a social contract isn't persuasive.

More Articles

View All
The (Second) Deadliest Virus
Few of the monsters that evolution created have been so successful at hurting us as the variola virus, responsible for smallpox. The carnage it caused was so terrible and merciless that it compelled humankind, for the first time, to act truly globally. It…
The Nurse Keeping Explorers Alive | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic
Foreign. This is a National Geographic map of the world. We’re in a basement office at National Geographic headquarters, and Karen Berry is standing in front of a huge map that stretches from floor to ceiling. Like a military general, she points out explo…
BMW OPEN 2024➡️ Самый холодный турнир АТР TOUR ?
Hello viewers and subscribers of the Sorokin Tennis channel. In this video, we will review the ATP250 tournament in Munich. Let’s try to tell you all in order what we saw here at this tournament. Go. Enjoyed the Munich weather. The first thing I want to …
Simplifying quotient of powers (rational exponents) | Algebra I | High School Math | Khan Academy
So we have an interesting equation here, and let’s see if we can solve for K. We’re going to assume that m is greater than zero, like always. Pause the video, try it out on your own, and then I will do it with you. All right, let’s work on this a little …
How to Analyze an Annual Report (10-K) Like a Hedge Fund Analyst
Legendary investor Warren Buffett has said in countless interviews that being able to analyze a company’s annual report is foundational for successful investing. In this video, we are going to go over how to analyze a company’s annual report, also referre…
Stem cells and differentiation | From cells to organisms | High school biology | Khan Academy
To me, one of the most fascinating ideas in biology is that we all started as a fertilized egg. So, that is a cell right over there. And then, through many, many divisions, all of a sudden—I wouldn’t say all of a sudden; it takes many months to develop ev…