You might want to think seriously about a universal social contract.
Governments can be bought. Corporations - children themselves of the state
- can become de facto governments when they have enough influence to control
the de-jure state.
A social contract, implemented correctly, could potentially undercut any
attempt by any power elite to acquire privilege (privi lege - private law).
>From: "John M Grigg" <starman125@lycos.com>>Subject: Re: Bugs in free
>markets
>Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 16:58:24 -0900
>
>Paul Hughes wrote:
>The rights of ownership instill on their owners a certain freedom and
>autonomy from
>tyranny. So now you see corporations increasingly moving away from selling
>and replacing
>it with leasing. .NET anyone? At first you could pay just once $49.99 to
>own your
>software. But with leasing, you will pay $10 today, and tomorrow and the
>next month, and
>so, and so on. "And oh, we decided that to continue to use our service,
>its going to cost
>you $30 a month! Sorry, we found out that you used our service to
>disparage our companies
>good name - service terminated!"
>
>And at the current clip of mergers and consolidations, what choice will you
>have left? If
>the only game in town is the large corporation, then that means that for a
>good part of
>your life if you care not to live in a tent, you will have to give up your
>individual
>sovereignty and freedom while employed. And without the so-called
>government that
>everyone around here likes to knock around, they would probably own us
>full-time - company
>leased house, company leased cars, company owned shops. Thank god for the
>semblance of
>law and a legion of law enforcement to back it up. What am I saying? This
>is all a
>first. But it has become obvious to me that corporations could give a damn
>about me and
>my freedoms. At least the government has the pretense of a constitutional
>guarantee of
>freedom.
>
>The biggest 'bug' I see in a free-market is there are no gauruntees of
>freedom -
>Everything is up for grabs!!! All that matters is the almighty buck, he
>with the most
>money wins!
>(end)
>
>I find this scenario absolutely terrifying and so likely to happen in at
>least some areas such as software. What do the rest of you think? If
>corporations use their lobbying muscle successfully(without a public outcry
>to stop it) I think we could see our rights and liberties as individuals
>taking a big step backwards.
>
>sincerely,
>
>John Grigg
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