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March 12, 2011 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
12:48
1866 UPB and Implicit Contracts

How do implicit contracts fit into the framework of Universally Preferable Behavior?

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Hi everybody, it's Steph. Hope you're doing well.
Great question. Great, great, great question that came out of the last Sunday show.
Guy asks, how do implicit obligations fit into UPB? Like a glove.
So an implicit obligation, I think the example that he gave was something like this.
So if I have a kid with someone and then I abandon those kids, is it a violation of UPB? To not support those kids, right?
To just sort of vamoosey-vamish and not pay a dime for their education or medical care or whatever.
Well, I think that's a great question, and I haven't done the logic tree, I haven't done the syllogisms, but this is my sort of first pass at it, and hopefully it's a good basis for further discussion.
This is, as always, a conversation, so I'm not going to pretend or claim that I have a final answer that must satisfy everyone.
But this is sort of my thoughts to begin with, and hopefully it's going to be helpful.
Alright, so first and foremost I would say that you can take positive actions that PREVENT Somebody else from helping.
So a classic example is somebody's drowning out in the bay and I leap up and I rip off my unitard, releasing my tight speedos and rippling chest muscles such as they are.
And I say, don't worry, I'm an Olympic swimmer.
I will go and save this person.
I'm also a lifeguard. And I'm Poseidon and Aquaman all bundled together into one entity.
And so I swim out and I then just decide to tread water by the person who's drowning.
And by the time the people on the shore realize that I'm not actually going to go and save this person, you know, they all go diving in and trying, but it's too late.
The person's drowned. So this is an example of where I'm taking positive action and making a claim that I'm going to save someone.
And as a result of me making that claim, the person dies.
Or at least the likelihood is very high that it was because of that.
Because I said, I'm going to save this person.
And I did all of the motions.
I mean, obviously this is ridiculous.
It's a ridiculous example because, I mean, how often would this happen?
But still, there's a principle that's worth elucidating from it.
So I say, I'm going to save this person, I swim out, and I just don't save them.
Have I initiated force against that person?
No. I guess I've committed a kind of fraud, because I've said I'm going to save them and then I won't.
But even if I don't say it, if I just swim out to that person, everyone's going to think I'm going to go and save them.
Even if I don't say anything, there's an implicit, quote, guarantee in what it is that I'm doing.
Let's take another example. Let's just say I have a strange fetish to dress up like an ambulance driver and I get a white cube van and paint it up like an ambulance and I monitor the police scanners and the fire scanners and I say, hey, every time I hear that somebody's in a car accident, I'm going to come screaming up with my sirens, I'm going to, you know, with my buddy, we're going to bundle them in the back of the fake ambulance and then we're just going to drive them around town.
We're not going to take them to a hospital.
Again, there's a kind of fraud there, but just skip that for a sec.
So, of course, everybody's putting the person into my ambulance thinking that I'm an actual ambulance guy.
And I'm going to save the person, or at least take them directly to the hospital.
But I don't. Now, I haven't explicitly said, listen, I'm not a real ambulance guy.
I'm just, you know, it's just Halloween fun for me.
But there is an implicit assumption, there is an implicit contract...
Which says if an ambulance shows up with an ambulance driver at an accident scene, the person who's injured is, by golly, going to be taken directly to hospital.
I mean, you don't have to get someone to sign a contract saying, hey, you're going to take this person straight to the hospital, right?
You're not just going to drive them around, go get some pizza, you know, go duck hunting or whatever while they slowly bleed out in the back of your van, right?
So there are...
Implicit contracts based upon the appearance of things.
I'm swimming out to save this person.
I'm showing up in what looks pretty much like an ambulance.
There are these implicit contracts in these situations.
Now, if through my actions I give people reasonable grounds to believe that the problem is going to be solved or that a certain action is going to be taken, then that is an implicit contract.
It's an implicit contract.
In the same way, if I go into a store, the guy doesn't stop me as I go into the store and make me sign a contract that says no stealing and you have to pay for what you want.
Because it's an implicit contract.
You go into a store and they don't have to have a posted policy which says no stealing.
I mean, even in a free society, they wouldn't have to have such a policy, right?
So that's important.
There is a lot of implicit contracts in the world.
You know, when I would go to work at a company, they didn't have me sign documents that said, no stealing paper and pens and whatever, right?
I mean, it's just kind of implicit.
So a lot of what goes on in the world is these kinds of implicit contracts.
And these implicit contracts are very important.
And so the question then becomes, so where do they fit into UPB? If you have a kid, you have a child, you don't have to sign a document which says, I'm not going to starve my child to death, and I'm going to get my child medical care when necessary, or prevented care, on a proactive basis.
I am not going to suffocate them with a paper bag, or, you know, you don't have to sign these documents because there is an implicit contract.
And the implicit contract is based, of course, on the vast majority of parents.
Vast, vast majority of parents.
I mean, I certainly have my problems with parenting, but I will say that it is a very, very rare parent who is going to starve a kid to death.
I mean, that's exceedingly, exceedingly rare.
So there is an implicit contract.
So if you have a baby and you take that baby home from the hospital, there is an implicit contract which says this baby is going to be taken care of.
Now, if you say in the hospital...
I am not going to take care of this baby.
Then, you know, at present social service gets involved and the kid goes up for adoption or whatever it is.
Because you've openly stated a deviation from the vast majority of other parents, right?
So the default position is parents will feed and take care of their children, right?
Eh, good. That's the default position.
And that is what is considered to be the case unless stated otherwise.
Right? So if you go to a deli, there's a whole bunch of stuff behind glass with numbers on it and dollar signs at prices.
And then there may be just a little white styrofoam cup which has some food in it, and it doesn't have a price on it.
And no one's going to arrest you for taking a sample because you assume that it samples, right?
So everything you have to pay for, except for, you know, that which is marked out, either says sample or whatever.
There's little toothpicks in it or whatever.
So, there is a, you know, the vast majority of social norms are there and are considered implicit.
And it is considered, I think, by every reasonable human being.
I know that's a cheat, but let's just go with it for the moment.
It is considered by every reasonable human being that unless you state an exception, you are going to be...
Part of the huge, vast, overwhelming majority of human beings in an implicit contract.
So unless you openly state that you're not going to take care of the child, you are assumed to be in the position of taking care of the child.
There is an implicit contract. And the reason is because by your actions, by not stating you're not going to take care of the child, by taking the child home, You are doing the, and if you don't plan to take care of the child, then you're doing the equivalent of swimming out, of saying, nobody come, it's too dangerous, only I can do it, and swimming out and not taking care of the guy, or picking up somebody in a fake ambulance and driving them around town until they die.
Because everybody assumes you're going to take care of the child unless you state otherwise.
So there is that implicit contract.
Now, how does this fit into no unchosen positive obligations?
Well, it's sort of like a hexagon square.
You've got to push it and twist a little bit.
Maybe some WD-40 and a little game of Twister and you're all set.
Well, there are no unchosen positive obligations.
But if you have a child, you know that the child cannot care of himself or herself.
And therefore, you are accepting it's a positive obligation.
And say, well, but what if there was an accident and the condom ripped and this and that?
Well, that's the nature of the beast.
There's no 100% birth control except abstinence unless your name happens to be Mary.
So that is just the deal.
If you engage in sex, you are engaging in however small the chances, the roulette wheel, of having a baby.
And if you have the baby, then you either have to take care of the child or you have to clearly...
And openly and positively say that you are deviating from the overwhelming social norm.
You're not going to be taking care of your child.
And then you have to hope that someone is going to pick up that child for adoption.
Now, if nobody picks up the child for adoption, then you must take care of the child.
Of course, because the child can't take care of itself.
And you voluntarily brought this child into...
So if you have some...
Sorry to use this analogy, but you buy some dog and then you take the dog home.
You find that you don't like the dog.
Well, then you can get somebody else to take the dog.
But if nobody else is going to take the dog, you can't just kill it.
In my opinion. Again, I mean, this is much more so the case with a human being.
But, of course, I mean, so many couples can't have kids that...
All things being equal, it's healthier, but it's hard to imagine that...
You'd have a huge amount of trouble getting someone to take the kid, but that's the reality.
Now, if you have a kid and you have taken on the obligation, then the obligation continues until the child is self-sufficient, right?
So you don't get to say, ah, I'll take my kid home, and I'm going to take care of the kid for the first five days, and after that I'm not going to.
Well, that really doesn't work.
Of course, because the kid doesn't suddenly become self-sufficient on his sixth day.
Now, when does the child become self-sufficient?
Well, there's a gray area. I think a healthy child of 30 is probably long past due for a self-sufficiency.
A child of 10, probably not so much.
You know, who knows? Somewhere in between, somewhere in the middle that will be worked out rationally by a free society with some gradations based on individual talents and abilities.
There will be some way to work this out.
But a parent, when they take on the implicit obligation of having children, of paying for the child, they then have to do that until the child becomes self-sufficient as an adult.
Or they have to clearly express that they're not going to do that in the hope that somebody else will take it over.
So as far as this goes, there is, if you have a child, then you are taking on an obligation.
You are creating and taking on an obligation.
And that to me is, yeah, it's a contract.
Now, are you signing a contract with the child?
No. You're not signing a contract with the child.
But that's okay. You know, because there are these implicit contracts that are voluntarily entered into by anybody with any brains, right?
So... I think that's...
You know, see, the implicit contract raises a whole bunch of issues.
But the reason that I still say there's no unchosen positive obligation is because you have to take specific positive action to end up in that situation, right?
So you don't have to take care of everyone's children because you're born, right?
So you don't have to take care of all the old people in the world because you happen to be born, right?
That's the welfare state.
That's Social Security. That's a state of society.
But you have to take specific positive action to enter into these implicit contracts, right?
Have a kid. Go around in a van painted to look like an ambulance.
Swim out and say you're going to save someone and then don't.
You have to take specific positive action to end up in these situations.
So that would be how I would work it.
And people will say, well, where does the...
And it's a perfectly great question, right?
Where do the gradations of requiring a specific contract...
Where do they fade out to implicit contracts, right?
So if you have a 99-year lease, you're probably going to have a pretty particular and specific contract.
If you have a prenup, you're going to have a pretty particular and specific contract.
Other things are much more implicit and so on.
Well, again, it's the same answers for everything, right?
There are cases in the extreme where...
It's obvious that either a contract is implicit or explicit, and then there's some stuff in the middle that will be grey, which will be worked out as rationally and as objectively as possible in a free society.
So that would be my approach.
So yeah, if you act in such a way that...
So strongly discourages other people from acting, and the result is harm, then yeah, that to me is the same as the initiation of force.
If you say, I'm going to take care of this kid, you go home and you starve the kid to death, then you are responsible.
If you say, look, I can't take care of that kid, I can't handle it, I have no money, whatever, then...
You have to make arrangements for other people to take care of.
You have to discharge or transfer that obligation to others.
If you say, I'm going to go swim out and save this guy, and then you just tread water and watch him drown, then yeah, you are the causal agent in the most likely cause of death for that person.
So yeah, that would be the initiation of force through fraud, right?
Through saying, I'm going to do something, I'm going to take care of the kid, I'm going to save this person, I'm going to take this injured person to the hospital, and you don't, right?
See? I mean, you don't actually...
Anyway, let's not get overly complicated.
So that would be my approach to this question.
And I'm happy to hear, you know, corrections and comments.
It's just my sort of first workings of the question.
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