Ryan J. Suto's Blog

17 July 2012

The Social Contract Revisited

Hello! By using America’s services, protections and opportunities, you agree to the following rights and obligations, and any policies, laws or amendments thereto that may be agreed upon through explicit legal processes. Provisions are made for updates in the future, and you will be able to find the most current version of this agreement in state and federal law.

Do you remember seeing that language at birth? No? What about at 18 years old, the age of adulthood in the US? No? That’s odd…

What is a contract?

Contracts wasn’t my favorite class in law school, to be honest. I claim no authority in the field. But a contract is really just the creation of one or more legal obligations between parties.

A common mistake is to assume that contracts require explicit consent. All product ‘terms and conditions’ are forms of contracts, and simply by using the product are you considered to assent to such terms and conditions. We all probably make hundreds of contracts each day. For example, let’s say you sit down at a buffet, the waitress brings you water, and then you begin to fill you plate. A bloated hour later you are full. How would it go over if you simply strolled out of the establishment without paying? Probably not well. A contract was formed through your actions and the tacit understanding that an exchange would occur: food for cash. You didn’t sign anything and the waitress didn’t make sure you explicitly understood that monetary compensation would be expected when you finally tapped-out.

In theory, the law would step in and require you to pay for the buffet if such a suit were brought to court. Why? Because you gained a benefit, conferred by another, without offering compensation in a circumstance when compensation was reasonably expected. In a term of art, you were unjustly enriched.

What is a state?

A state is a legal structure which has a population and a monopoly on the legitimate use of force within its territory. Why would anyone cede the ability to unquestioningly use force to some legal structure? Let’s ask the Declaration of Independence:


So people would theoretically enter into a state to secure life and liberty. And the state claims only power which comes from the people within it. That’s fine and dandy, but if a body is given power, it would likely abuse it in some way, wouldn’t it? It might even go so far as to disregard its original purpose. What do we do when this happens?


So when a government destroys liberty instead of securing it, the people have the right to change it or get rid of it all together. That unrelated concept of a contract is beginning to sounds familiar; rights, obligations, and remedies for breaches. But how do we know when a breach occurs, when to oust the state?


This is really just a recommendation and then a warning: Don't get rid of your government for stupid reasons, but to be honest people have a predisposition to tolerate a government that sucks rather than to get off the couch and change it.

OK, this state thing sounds like a contract, but I didn’t agree to it!

Oh, you did—you just don’t know it yet.

Just like at the buffet, a contract was formed through your actions and the tacit understanding that an exchange would occur. What actions? Voting, paying taxes, or benefitting from services paid for by taxes, etc. all indicate a use of the service provided for in the contract and tacit consent of the contract itself. By partaking in the state’s services, protections and opportunities you have been enriched at the cost of the other parties in the contract. It’s a quid pro quo, a reciprocating duty: you must uphold you end of the bargain. Elizabeth Warren put it nicely (paraphrased):


If you don’t like this contract, there are of course ways out. Otherwise, it would be coercive! First, the Declaration of Independence notes, supra, when you have the right to destroy the whole contract. Second, the Constitution explains the processes for changing the specific terms while maintaining the contact generally. Third, you can stop benefitting from the contract, and thus your reciprocal obligations would no longer be required. Yes, I’m suggesting moving out of the country.

Note: The Westphalian state/social contract paradigm has shifted since the time of the Declaration of Independence due to the philosophy embodied in the Responsibility to Protect. Previously the contractual relationship was only the business of the state and the people within its territory. But now the UN has asserted the right to be involved in this relationship. This is quite new, but we have seen a growing trend of humanitarian and military interventions in situations which ordinarily would have been viewed as wholly domestic issues. 

Some problems with social contract theory

First, no person has a choice as to what political system into which that person is born. Individuals become beneficiaries (or victims) of state probably immediately. Thus affirmative action must be taken to change the terms or change contracts. But how would we remedy this? The choices are limited: anarchy, governance with no claims of the consent of the governed, or to create a stateless land of wild children, who upon a certain age would be required to choose a state to enter. Antarctica is a bit too cold this time of year for that, I think.

Second, there are opportunity costs to leaving a given territory. Even if someone studied all the social contracts out there, and picked their favorite one, there are costs and hurdles to getting there. This is especially true for the economically disadvantaged, who are more ‘stuck’ with a state in which they often have decreasing voice. But relocation is pretty common. If nothing else, history is the story of human migration. If you’re an American, unless you're full Native or fully descended from those brought here unwillingly, your ancestors made this exact choice.

Third, at times it is effectively contract of adhesion. There are so many parties to the contract that any change requires a large number of parties to agree or any change. Each individual is only 1 in over 300,000,000 parties, and like most contracts, you can’t unilaterally change its terms.

Fourth, one might argue that a contract without explicit consent is in itself presumptuous or immoral. There is some ground here, but that would solve nothing. For each contract we presently enter unknowingly, there are almost just as many that we simply click through or sign on because they are too long or we aren’t interested. The social contract is no different.

There are probably others, too…


Even if you view the social contract as a noble lie, it at least serves as a useful understanding of why it is deplorable for individuals to choose to ignore the opportunities and advantages that have been provided to them with taxpayer money and try at every corner to get out of any reciprocating obligation.

I understand, and am sympathetic to, disagreeing with almost everything that a government does and feeling that government has not upheld the values in the founding documents. I often admire movements like the Tea Party and Occupy because they are actively trying to change the contract for those very reasons. Alternatively, with the services and opportunities provided in other countries, I completely understand leaving the US for greener pastures.

But it is wholly unfair to continue to reap benefits provided through government services, then act as if you don’t—only to make yourself feel justified in trying to not pay your fair share back into the system. Don’t think what is presently asked is fair? You can work to change that, too—but keep in mind the costs of what you have gained a la the Warren quote above. While many states go so far as to require periods of national service, all I ask from Americans is to recognize benefits derived, to not be so bitter about reciprocating, and to please work to change the system for the better, should you choose to remain.

The current electoral and political system in the US is approaching, if not already in, a state of complete dysfunction. That is not to say it is irreparable, of course. But what we need, more than ever, is a citizenry who will roll up their sleeves and invest time and money into getting America back on course by either fixing our current institutions or abandoning them for wholly new ones. If you would rather leave, that’s fine. But we have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with individuals who wish to cheat the system by gaining from its outputs and yet have no desire or intent to pay back into the system their fair share.


  1. The social contract is not a real contract, nor should the idea even be entertained. It is philosophy. It was not meant to be a guiding post in how we live our lives or how big the government should be; merely an explanation on how society is built: we give up rights so that we can obtain the benefit of group work. It was not meant to be leverage to feed the federal government.

    Despite what some would have people think, I don't think that there are any that, even with their tremendous hard work, will deny some opportunity given to them.

    However, the way the social contract theory is now being used also presumes that the wealthy are not paying their "fair share" into the system. The reality is that the minority pays for the great majority of services provided in this country.

    The "social contract" argument is without definite boundaries and feels like it could be argued to no end. And, honestly, it sounds like a lot of whining about what is fair and rhetoric about wealthy people not working hard enough. At what point would enough be enough? Where is your definition of "fair share"? When do they meet the ambiguous requirement for reaping the benefits of society? Furthermore, don't we all reap benefits from their reaping of benefits? (lower food costs, nice and more affordable electronics, grocery stores, etc.)?

    I don't mind (as much) arguments that the wealthy should pay higher taxes, but I can not stand the use of flexible, indefinite, morally righteous, and abused philosophy to support political campaigns.

    1. Thank you for reading and commenting.


      True. It is only a philosophy. But I have heard too many people exclaim, ‘but what about me? I didn’t sign it! I didn’t consent!’ This is a response to them: if you want to claim it’s just philosophical, then no consent is needed—it’s just a construct. But if you expect someone to come around and get everyone’s signature, then this post is meant to counter that.

      “Where is your definition of "fair share"?”

      That doesn’t matter. What matters is the people’s definition of fair share, as collected by our governance institutions as provided for by law.

  2. I'll buy the Elisabeth Warren assertion when they protect the rights of american workers, who pay taxes to protect business concerns domestically and abroad from harm, from unfair competition with countries and individuals who are on destitute footings. If Joe the plumber didn't build that, then Larry Ellison certainly didn't build Oracle, who outsources jobs and imports H1B workers in fields that most certainly do not have a lack of available personnel--only a price that he doesn't like. Now, I'll be happy to give him all the foreign workers and Mr Jobs all the Chinese factories they like, as long as we don't go protect them when some party member in China decides to find Apple 'at fault for corruption' and confiscate all of its intellectual property, seize all assets that they have reach to seize, and imprison and torture him or his agents, for the benefit of that corrupt party official, as happens to many entrepreneurs in Chinese society.

  3. Your waitress analogy misses the point. Going to a restaurant is voluntary. Abiding by the "social contract" is not. If a restaurant behaved like the government, they would claim ownership over a patch of land, force everyone within that land to eat their food, extort money out of people to pay for that food, and jail or murder anyone who refuses to pay. That's the absurdity and immorality of this institution we call "the government."