A New Social Contract

The original social contract  which was prepared by political philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and, especially, Jean Jacques Rousseau has expired. 300 years history of the world has proved that that contract hasn’t worked. It has failed. That contract was designed to bring the institution of Leviathan i.e., the State into existence so that its negative power can protect us from harming each other. But instead of doing that original work, state has done exactly the opposite i.e., it has robbed and killed us and put our lives in grave dangers. That contract was also designed to limit the powers of the state so that it doesn’t start to harm us, but that is exactly what has happened. Instead of keeping to its minimum role of protecting our life, liberty and property, the state has expanded its tentacles everywhere in our lives. Our minutes of lives are now being ruled and controlled by the state. This is why the time for framing a new social contract has arrived. In this essay I offer a New Social Contract to be signed by the free people of the world with their respective state governments. Here it is.

We the free People of the world sign this contract with our respective states that we don’t need you to produce Justice, Peace, Common Defense, we don’t need you to provide for general welfare and we don’t need you to secure Liberty either for us or for our posterity. We do not need your legislation. We do not want anything from you. You exit from our lives and leave us alone free to organize our societies privately. We will take care of ourselves. We will privately produce Justice, Peace and Prosperity. We will privately provide for our defense. Our private competing justice system will make sure that Liberty of everyone is protected. Our private enterprise system will produce enough surplus wealth so we will take care of our poor and needy via private charity without robbing, i.e., taxation, anyone’s hard earned income. All in all, we will handle all our affairs privately using the system of competitive free markets.

During the transition period we will make temporary arrangements for your livelihood until the time all state officials learn new skills and find a productive job in the private sector. You all will join the private law society.

I know many will call this idea utopian, but then I want to remind everyone that the original social contract was actually a true utopia where we give monopoly of power in the hands of few people and then expect them to protect us! This new contract is much more closer to reality than the original one. Here there is no monopoly of power.  The only difficulty is how to implement it. But then many ideas which once looked impossible in the past did become a reality today. It is up to the freedom loving people of this world to make this new social contract a reality.

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4 thoughts on “A New Social Contract

  1. Kamal singh says:

    What if those private companies start to take over the city/country as a sort of dictator . Who would prevent the tyranny of those private org. ? Whats the guarantee that rich people would not just the justice system or the people employed to protect ?
    Can you even cite an example where this kind of society have actually worked ?
    This site is hypocrite in itself., its talks about freedom , any none of my comments have ever been accepted . What about freedom of speech ? (All of my comments were criticism of ur articles )
    Atleast govt. allows u guys to criticize them while there hasnt been a single comment on this whole website criticizing ur opinions . Like my comments those comments also dont get pass moderation . Nice work !
    You mentioned its difficult to implement, suggestove that u dont even know how it would work. If u dont even have a plan to implement this y would a govt trust u ij transfer of power . That wpuld be absurd. You dont sell ur own house before buying a new one . Thats called stupidity

    • Mises India says:

      Mr. Singh, you should first read the article in its totality following all the links and also studying them before commenting here i.e., if a book or article is given in a link then read that book or article first and then if you don’t understand anything then come here and comment. You do not have any idea of how competitive markets work and what freedom is. Your comments were not critical. They were ignorant and uncivilized statements, like the above comment, and so it wasn’t necessary to approve them. Remove your ignorance first before expressing opinions. Unfortunately We do not have time to give you full education in this comment section. Self study on your part is the only option. If you are ready to learn then let us know. We will be very happy to suggest self study material to you.

      And there is no freedom of speech. You can’t go in a packed movie theater and start shouting ‘fire, fire’. Theater owners will simply throw you out. You can’t go in someone’s house in the middle of the night and start giving them lecture; they will also throw you out. Private property is important. Freedom of speech is a nonsensical idea. And, Freedom is a negative concept. It doesn’t mean ‘allowing anyone to do whatever they want’. In fact, it is precisely opposite to that. Your freedom stops where someone’s begins. And freedom also means, right to disassociation. We will choose with whom we want to engage in a discussion and not. Thank you.

      And we are not slaves of government that we need their permission to say what we want to. Governments are peoples’ servants and not masters. Masters can hire servants and if not needed then fire too.

      There are many thoughtful comments here to which we respond. We can’t waste our time if the comment doesn’t make any sense.

      • Satchit Prabhu says:

        I Completely agree with this, today governments have every incentive to do the wrong thing and no incentive to do the right thing. The privatise gains and socialise losses. It’s an illegitimate institution that has far outstayed its time, kept alive only by propaganda and lack of education. Bastiat once said “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of people in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
        The only problem I see right now besides government vilification of a truly free society is how shall a nation transition away from government powers? If India suddenly woke up to a majority outcry for an Ancap society how would a nation transition away from the illegitimate monopoly that is the government? This unanswered question has dissuaded quite a few people from taking these ideas seriously.
        How do you think India should move away from government power?
        Will/Should the government play a role in this process?

        • Mises India says:

          There will be no sudden outcry for an Ancap society because that requires changing of the underlying culture and genes (DNA) of people. That will take thousands of years and we need to do our bit towards that end and pass on the torch to the future generation. But before that, I see state itself collapsing under its own weight. And when it will collapse, Indian subcontinent will be divided in smaller areas like how it always was historically before 1947. Then different areas like Surat or Mumbai, which are much close to commercial spirit, will have a chance to go the market way.

          Until then, we need to keep on working on our ideas.

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