It is a natural impossibility for any man to make a binding contract, by which he shall surrender to others a single one of what are commonly called his "natural, inherent, inalienable rights.
Lysander Spooner: “It is a natural impossibility for any man to make a binding contract, by which he shall surrender to others a single one…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner claims it is impossible for individuals to surrender their inherent rights through contract.
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They do not tell us of the almshouses, hospitals, schools, churches, etc., which, out of the purest charity and benevolence, they maintain for our benefit, out of the money they take from us.
They acknowledge it to be our unquestioned right and duty to kill them, if we can; that they expect nothing else, than that we will kill them, if we can; and that we are only fools and cowards, if we do not kill them, by any and every…
They do not tell us that we are the freest and happiest people on earth, inasmuch as each of our male adults is allowed one voice in ten millions in the choice of the men, who are to rob, enslave, and murder us.
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.