self-ownership

Today in my political philosophy class the professor began with a bit of a thought experiment. She presented the following case to the class.

Imagine that you live within a neighborhood which has recently seen an increase in crime. Local authorities are never on time to prevent the crime, so a group of individuals within your neighborhood decide to take matters in their own hands. So they invest in various resources and begin a neighborhood crime watch. After a short period of time, this small group of fellow neighbors has managed to reduce the crime within your neighborhood so much that it is basically crime free. As a result of their efforts, the group of people is now demanding a fee from everyone in the neighborhood, including you. Given the fact that you never agreed to their protection, are they in fact legitimate and should you be required to pay because you are receiving the benefits of their efforts?

I reacted with a smile bordering on laughter so I looked around the room to gauge everyone else. Most of their facial expressions could best be described as a I-shouldn’t-have-to-pay-the-stupid-fucking-fee-because-I-never-agreed-to-it-but-now-that-I-think-about-it-that-sounds-a-lot-like-our-government-and-I-think-it’s-legtimate-so-I-need-to-hurry-up-and-come-up-with-a-justification-for-it look. Ever seen that one before? It’s rather amusing.

Well I replied to the question first basically saying that the neighborhood crime watch was analogous to our government and neither one is legitimate. I never agreed to their neighborhood crime watch so why should I have to pay?

Again, most of the class presented arguments of “tacit consent” and the benefits received on behalf of the neighborhood crime watch.

I mean your neighborhood has less crime so you should have to pay, right?

This has tempted me to bake cookies tomorrow so that I can bring them to class on Wednesday. Once I hand them out to everybody and once they finish eating their cookie, I’ll demand $1 in return for my labor. They benefited from it so they have an obligation to pay, right?!