Often overlooked, the Right of Contract is one that is being brutally attacked on all fronts, mainly by the Nanny State, but also by rent-seeking oligopolists attempting to maintain their ill-gotten market shares and preferential pricing. Maybe it’s time We The People started a movement to get Government the hell out of our personal contracts.
It has long been established that “persons” (including corporate persons) have a right to contract freely for goods, services, rights, and other things of value, as long as what is contracted for is not illegal (excluding, for example, murder for hire). It seems simple, doesn’t it?
But if I’m a retired guy or a high school kid and I’m willing to pump gas at a service station or sweep floors in a delicatessen for $5 per hour, both I and my prospective employer will be accosted by the Federal, State, and possibly even Local government, telling me that we cannot enter into such an arrangement. It is prohibited by “law.”
Where do these governments get this right to interfere with my right of contract? Nowhere.
What if I own a mini-van, live in the suburbs, and want to offer rides to work to my neighbors for a fee that is agreeable to all of us involved? I can’t do it. I would be running a de facto “taxi” service, and we would all come under fire from our state public utility commission. (Assume I will track the costs and revenues, and pay any applicable taxes).
What if I have an opportunity to take a construction job that offers high hourly pay, but no vacation or sick time (I get paid only for the hours that I work)? The high hourly rate itself is compensation for the fact that the work is seasonal and there is no compensated downtime. But now the municipality passes a law that requires the employer to provide paid vacation and sick time (I don’t even want to mention paid maternity leave). Does the employer get the chance to adjust his hourly rate downward to reflect the change? Not on your life.
What if a company has valuable work to be done, but it is only needed sporadically? It matches up perfectly with the millions of people who only want to work sporadically, because they like to take long motorcycle trips, or go camping, or visit their native country for months at a time. And now some Government agency wants to step in and prevent companies from hiring people as “independent contractors”? Or we have state courts that are about to “declare” that the independent contractors working for Lyft and Uber are really “employees,” in spite of the fact that they have all voluntarily signed contracts explicitly stating that they are independent contractors, and not employees.
This is bullshit. These people voluntarily chose to pursue and engage in a relationship with certain well-defined parameters, and here is a non-party - a government agency - saying that they cannot do it.
Where do these government agencies get the power to trample on a constitutional right, and why do we let them do it? Our founding documents make it quite clear that certain rights – including without question the Right of Contract – PRECEDE government, and a Government can only take them away with good and reasonable cause, and after due process of law. But somehow our government Nannies in courts and legislatures have taken it upon themselves to decide for us what sorts of contracts are OK for us to enter into, and what provisions are “acceptable.” We allow it to happen because it seems harmless; what does it hurt if employers are forced to pay more, or to provide a benefit that they didn’t intend to? But that is a superficial analysis; the harm comes in the form of lost jobs, lost opportunity, and lost prerogatives.
As with many other things, we have gradually acceded to the false principle that our rights COME FROM THE STATE, but they manifestly do not. Read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself (not someone’s slanted interpretation of the Constitution). Our rights precede the state and the state can be abolished for taking them away. At the very least, we can expel elected officials who take it upon themselves to extinguish human rights that have existed for eons.
It has long been established that “persons” (including corporate persons) have a right to contract freely for goods, services, rights, and other things of value, as long as what is contracted for is not illegal (excluding, for example, murder for hire). It seems simple, doesn’t it?
But if I’m a retired guy or a high school kid and I’m willing to pump gas at a service station or sweep floors in a delicatessen for $5 per hour, both I and my prospective employer will be accosted by the Federal, State, and possibly even Local government, telling me that we cannot enter into such an arrangement. It is prohibited by “law.”
Where do these governments get this right to interfere with my right of contract? Nowhere.
What if I own a mini-van, live in the suburbs, and want to offer rides to work to my neighbors for a fee that is agreeable to all of us involved? I can’t do it. I would be running a de facto “taxi” service, and we would all come under fire from our state public utility commission. (Assume I will track the costs and revenues, and pay any applicable taxes).
What if I have an opportunity to take a construction job that offers high hourly pay, but no vacation or sick time (I get paid only for the hours that I work)? The high hourly rate itself is compensation for the fact that the work is seasonal and there is no compensated downtime. But now the municipality passes a law that requires the employer to provide paid vacation and sick time (I don’t even want to mention paid maternity leave). Does the employer get the chance to adjust his hourly rate downward to reflect the change? Not on your life.
What if a company has valuable work to be done, but it is only needed sporadically? It matches up perfectly with the millions of people who only want to work sporadically, because they like to take long motorcycle trips, or go camping, or visit their native country for months at a time. And now some Government agency wants to step in and prevent companies from hiring people as “independent contractors”? Or we have state courts that are about to “declare” that the independent contractors working for Lyft and Uber are really “employees,” in spite of the fact that they have all voluntarily signed contracts explicitly stating that they are independent contractors, and not employees.
This is bullshit. These people voluntarily chose to pursue and engage in a relationship with certain well-defined parameters, and here is a non-party - a government agency - saying that they cannot do it.
Where do these government agencies get the power to trample on a constitutional right, and why do we let them do it? Our founding documents make it quite clear that certain rights – including without question the Right of Contract – PRECEDE government, and a Government can only take them away with good and reasonable cause, and after due process of law. But somehow our government Nannies in courts and legislatures have taken it upon themselves to decide for us what sorts of contracts are OK for us to enter into, and what provisions are “acceptable.” We allow it to happen because it seems harmless; what does it hurt if employers are forced to pay more, or to provide a benefit that they didn’t intend to? But that is a superficial analysis; the harm comes in the form of lost jobs, lost opportunity, and lost prerogatives.
As with many other things, we have gradually acceded to the false principle that our rights COME FROM THE STATE, but they manifestly do not. Read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself (not someone’s slanted interpretation of the Constitution). Our rights precede the state and the state can be abolished for taking them away. At the very least, we can expel elected officials who take it upon themselves to extinguish human rights that have existed for eons.
