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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 a  is 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