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		    TOWARDS A SOCIAL CONTRACT


	The object of this essay is to suggest that society would
benefit from having a "social contract".  This contract would
regulate the way in which the benefits society has to offer are
divided among groups and individuals.  The purpose of the contract
is to reduce strife by making a long term arrangement that would
be universally recognized and would be rather difficult to change
quickly.  When a person undertook an occupation, he would have
a good understanding of its rewards relative to others and would
measure his talents against the rewards offered by the various
occupations.

	The social contract should take into account the following
matters:

	1. The desire for equality.

	2. The desire for stability.  A person who plays by the
rules and wins should have confidence that he will be allowed
to substantially keep his winnings.  This is part of most people's
sense of justice - but not everyone's.  Well, maybe it is part
of everyone's, but equalitarians often forget it or apply it only
to the future.

	3. The necessity for stability against secession.  No large
essential group should find it to its advantage to leave the society
taking its share of wealth and set up separately.  We shall imagine this
to be possible, for example by emigration elsewhere in the solar system.
This third principle often conflicts with the first and limits the
extent to which equality of result can be enforced.

	It is very important that there be a genuine possibility of
opting out of the social contract - forgoing both its obligations
and its future benefits.  This means that there must be a "reservation"
to which maverick individuals and groups can go.  Naturally, those
who don't like the main society are unlikely to be all of one mind
about what they would prefer, so there needs to be space for many
different societies.  However, each only gets its share of space in
proportion to its original numbers and its immigrants, so having
lots of children doesn't entitle it to more.  Outer space is
presumably the place for much emigration.

	We can imagine a ceremony of adherence to the social contract
held at age 21.  Refusal to adhere relieves a person of the
obligations and benefits, and he is not charged for his education.
The reason for making non-adherence a genuine rather than merely
a symbolic option is to relieve pressure on society from natural
malcontents who might otherwise become revolutionaries.

	It might turn out that there is more than one form of
attractive society - each attractive to a different kind of
person.  Inter-society migration should be allowed subject to
the immigration restrictions of the receiving society.
As long as a space frontier remained, new societies could be
started.