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Old 04-21-2007, 09:24 AM
pvn pvn is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: back despite popular demand
Posts: 10,955
Default Re: Best quick argument against the \"social contract\" canard

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hot dogs : government provided good
$100 : taxes
monopoly on food service : monopoly on distribution of said government provided good

I really don't think I needed to spell that out. What is your issue with it?

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I don't want to answer for Martinez, but here's my problems with it:

1. The ridiculous overpricing of hotdogs. $100 for a hotdog is equivalent to something like 95% tax rate - which no one would tolerate. Given the current pricing of hotdogs, the analogy suggests a 4000% differential between the cost of government and market supplied goods. This is absurd. He relies on the effect of "OMG $100 for a hotdog!!! WTF??" when this is in no way analogous to the government situation.

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Yeah. Government never made me buy $500 toilet seats or $2000 coffee makers.

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2. He implies that hotdog buyers don't have a say in pricing - but they do have a say in government, on several levels. People can and have and have voted for and against big government.

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Not true! The hotdog vendor has a suggestion box! He cares about your opinion!

I suggested that I pay less in taxes and nobody even read my suggestion card.

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3. The analogy he gives implies that most people would be outraged at the vendor's prices, but have no choice. Where I live at least, most people have no problem paying their taxes (the same as they don't have a problem using roads, schools, free health care, police, courts, or welfare when unemployed/sick)

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Of course, most people in my hotdog distribution territory have no problems at all paying $100 for a hot dog. After all, they realize that they have to eat, they've done it their whole life, and they have no right to use money without paying the costs of my social contract!

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4. Oh, and as a bonus, I give free wedgies (retail value: $500 each, just because I arbitrarily placed that value on them) with each hotdog. Enjoy!

That line is just drivel from a man who's high on his own moral outrage. It adds nothing to the discussion and is pure look-at-me juvenile BS.

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I don't get a *seperate* bill for the Iraq war. I get it for "free"!
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