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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Uneasy Case For The Flat Tax, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, F. H. Buckley
The Uneasy Case For The Flat Tax, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, F. H. Buckley
Eric Bennett Rasmusen
There is a secret paradox at the heart of social contract theories. Such theories assume that, because personal security and private property are at risk in a state of nature, subjects will agree to grant Leviathan a monopoly of violence. But what is to prevent Leviathan from turning on his subjects once they have lain down their arms? If Leviathan has the same incentives as his subjects in the Hobbesian state of nature, he will plunder them more thoroughly than ever they plundered themselves in the state of nature. Thus the social contract always leaves subjects worse off, unless Leviathan …
Naked Exlusion: Reply, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, J. Mark Ramseyer, John Shepard Wiley Jr.
Naked Exlusion: Reply, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, J. Mark Ramseyer, John Shepard Wiley Jr.
Eric Bennett Rasmusen
Our one- page reply to Whinston and Siegal's forthcoming AER article correcting and elaborating our 1991 AER article.