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Originally Posted by ila
That was what I was saying in my first post.
I still say the social contract is non-existent. Every program run by any government is paid for through taxes. Governments do not create money they only redistribute what is taken in taxes. The government takes in money (from me) and later gives it back. The government did not create any program out of benevolence. Programs were created by governments in the hopes that they will be retain power because it looks like they are doing something for nothing. Therefore there is no social contract.
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Frankly, I don't understand your view of the social contract. To me a social contract is when the public decides to form a government in order to provide services that the public cannot provide on their own. The public can decide what type of government they want, totalitarian, representative of communal, for example. We in the US decided on a representative type of government as our social contract. In order to provide the services the public desires, the government levies taxes to pay for the services. If the government cant obtain sufficient taxes to provide the services, It can issue notes (borrow money) to pay for the services. In the past these notes (bonds, dollar bills) were backed up by gold reserves stored in Fort Knox. Theoretically, anyone could go to a bank and exchange their dollars or bonds for gold. President Nixon did away with that so the government could have unlimited opportunity to expand its credit line. The value of the bonds and the dollar are now based on the faith and credit of the government. We now have a government deeply in debt and comitted to provide a vast array of services in addition to protecting us from dangerous threats such as Afghanistan. Our social contract with our government is in dire need of rehabilitation.