Implied contracts, social contract

[strngrnrth]

With whom do we have implicit contracts?
Is there a contract to try to contribute to a society implicit in benefiting from that society?
Is there an implicit contract to help someone who would otherwise die if we are aware of the situation and can easily help enough to save the person’s life?
Is there an implied contract to cooperate with people to some reasonable extent involved in sharing a city with them?
Are we obliged to take responsibility for the most natural and most obvious consequences of our freely chosen and unnecessary actions?
Are some acts contracts?

 

[thomfra]

With whom do we have implicit contracts?
Is there a contract to try to contribute to a society implicit in benefiting from that society?
Is there an implicit contract to help someone who would otherwise die if we are aware of the situation and can easily help enough to save the person’s life?
Is there an implied contract to cooperate with people to some reasonable extent involved in sharing a city with them?
Are we obliged to take responsibility for the most natural and most obvious consequences of our freely chosen and unnecessary actions?
Are some acts contracts?

for question 1. I would say yes - at least in most countries. It could in part explain why riots looting and carnage seem to occur in the US everytime something goes wrong like a hurricane, the power going off etc.

Basically the people rioting and looting feel so disenfranchised, that they feel that they are not bound by this implicit contract. In more welfare based societies this doesn’t occur. People behave because they are treated well in return.

 

[Oscarthecat]

With whom do we have implicit contracts?
Is there a contract to try to contribute to a society implicit in benefiting from that society?
Is there an implicit contract to help someone who would otherwise die if we are aware of the situation and can easily help enough to save the person’s life?
Is there an implied contract to cooperate with people to some reasonable extent involved in sharing a city with them?
Are we obliged to take responsibility for the most natural and most obvious consequences of our freely chosen and unnecessary actions?
Are some acts contracts?

Social relationship defined by “contracts” must allow for the possibility that the contract can be violated, and that leads to the further possibility that penalties for violating the contract can be enforced according to the terms of the contract. When you get into issues of default, enforcement, and consequences, terms have to be painstakingly specific because both parties may feel as though they have been wronged.

This becomes very impractical when you believe you have an “implied” contract with others in society, because the terms of that contract are, by definition, very loose and very open to interpretation.

Based on that, I don’t believe that such a thing as an “implied contract” can exist- at best, without specific terms, we can only offer free gifts with the hope of a return exchange of an in-kind gift. If a person abuses another’s free gift, or fails to offer a gift in exchange, the one who offered the gift cannot take any recourse against them. Instead, they can only choose not to offer future gifts to that individual.

For example, if I give a homeless person $1 on the street, I may expect them to buy food- but I can’t say we have entered into a contract with one another because there are no terms for default. Therefore, this could not be considered a contract, implied or otherwise, because it is mono-directional- there is no mutual agreement on rights and responsibilities for each party. I could say, however, that I have given them a free gift of $1, and in return hope that they offer the free gift of their gratitude, properly expressed by buying food with that $1. How and if they offer a return gift indicates to me whether they want to engage in future exchanges, but has no bearing whatsoever on my original gift of $1.