Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dartvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!dartvax!karl From: karl@dartvax.UUCP (Karl Berry.) Newsgroups: net.legal,net.philosophy Subject: Abuse of social contracts. Message-ID: <2748@dartvax.UUCP> Date: Sat, 9-Feb-85 10:35:13 EST Article-I.D.: dartvax.2748 Posted: Sat Feb 9 10:35:13 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 04:44:28 EST Distribution: net Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Lines: 56 Xref: watmath net.legal:1388 net.philosophy:1451 I recently found a strange advertisement in my mailbox, from an outfit called Boardroom Books. They wanted to sell me The Book of Inside Information, for a substantial [in their eyes] discount. The advertisement starts: WHAT CREDIT CARD COMPANIES DON'T TELL YOU. PAGE 10. What hospitals don't tell you... What the IRS doesn't tell you... What auto mechanics don't tell you... and so forth. Sounds like Ralph Nader so far. Then, down in the text of the advertisement: ( a few samples ) How to fight back when health insurance claim is denied. AND WIN. Costs not listed in contract can be covered if you know the ropes. Legal ways to take tax deduction for full cost of trip mixing business and pleasure. How to deduct commuting expenses, country club membership, medical bills paid for non-dependent. And more. Quit your job, take your accrued pension tax-free, and use it to start your own business. Legal at any age. You miss your April 15 deadline and on't get around filing until mid-August. NO IRS penalty. Lots of taxpayers just like you are quietly getting away with it. Alongside such items as: How auto repair shops pa their bills. Inside strategy for getting honest total. Homeowner mistake permits fire insurance company to give you 20% less protection than you're paying for. How to check a doctor's credentials, understand medical jargon on a patients hospital chart, cut through hospital red tape, and get couteous treatment from floor staff. To me, the first set of things are `wrong'. I am not a lover of our government [who is?] but by cheating, legally or not, on taxes, insurance, or whatever, hurts the rest of the people at the same time it helps you. ( The same dilemma as that of the Commons... ) The second set of things, on the other hand, are things which some institution has imposed on us, and which, willy-nilly, we are forced to accept. The connection I see is perhaps that in both cases ais being abused; the purposes for which it was set up are being subverted. In the first case, it's a private citizen, in the second, an institution doing the abusing. Do other people see these same distinctions? Is one ``better'' than the other? Should we thus consider all contracts as being held in ``bad faith'' by both parties and try to protect ourselves? ( Warm fuzzies, though? ) What can we do? dartvax!karl karl@dartmouth.csnet