This thread is a spin-off from the "Dangerous Billboards" thread ~

I believe any federal government does have a "social contract" with its public ~ we pay our taxes and those monies [along with the power of a federal government when needed] should be used to benefit and to aid us when we need the help ~ aside from our personal moral responsibilities as humans, and speaking as an American, I believe, deeply, that our Constitution created that contract, specificially with the "provide for the general welfare" clause ~ I readily admit that several of our "social entitlements", like welfare, are out of control and need heavy-duty reining in of the rampant fraud ~ while I believe that helping our fellow citizens in times of need is a moral responsibility, I do not support "welfare" as a career choice ~ but I do want our government to provide basic human needs for those who cannot provide those needs for themselves ~ food, shelter, health care ~ it hurts deeply to think of babies and elderly going to bed hungry, and cold. and ill in our country of abundant comfort and plenty ~ and in my own mind we must care for those who cannot care for themselves ~ sadly, some sociopaths will always look for a way to beat the system ~ but we cannot and must not allow those sociopaths to diminish or abolish help for those in need ~

I hear people demanding lower taxes ~ trust me, I am not asking for my taxes to be raised ~ but I understand that the US is in the bottom five for lowest taxes amongst the [I think] 30 highest industrialized nations in the world ~ and that we could easily raise taxes to significantly cut the deficit AND pay for health care reform while remaining in the bottom 10 for lowest taxes ~ we also generally have higher salaries and wages than many other nations ~ but an inordinately large percentage of our taxes pays for defense and our military ~ while I recognize the vital importance of a strong national defense and a strong military, I don't believe that has to or should come at the expense of providing basic human needs to those in need ~ given a choice, I vote for helping people instead of sending them off to war ~

Sooz

Gramps - Writing about something earlier sounds like a neat time travel trick. LOL!!!!

We need definitions...

This is from wikipedia.

'Social contract' describes a broad class of theories that try to explain the ways in which people form states and/or maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up some rights to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order through the rule of law. It can also be thought of as an agreement by the governed on a set of rules by which they are governed.

Social contract theory formed a central pillar in the historically important notion that legitimate state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed. The starting point for most of these theories is a heuristic examination of the human condition absent from any structured social order, usually termed the "state of nature". In this condition, an individual's actions are bound only by his or her personal power, constrained by conscience. From this common starting point, the various proponents of social contract theory attempt to explain, in different ways, why it is in an individual's rational self-interest to voluntarily give up the freedom one has in the state of nature in order to obtain the benefits of political order.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract

The obvious answer to this question is YES because we have to obey the laws of the land.