Heads I win, Tails you can’t.

As Princetown’s academics prove America is not a democracy anymore, rather closer to an oligarcy, I wonder where we go from here. It seems the rules have changed while we’ve not been paying attention. The rules are now being made by the top 1%. It will soon be illegal to refuse to buy whatever they are making a profit on. If I don’t buy enough Coca-Cola’s in any one year they will be able to sue me for loss of income. If I refuse to purchase X dozen disposable nappies reasoning my children are pushing forty they can still charge me for restricting their future profits. This is heads I pay them, tails I pay them. It sounds ludicrous but if we’ve let them make the rules you’ve got to admit it’s a pretty neat rule. Imagine going to B&Q and the auto check-out machine says, “In order for us to maintain our projected profit growth for the current year your purchases must total £523.30. As your current total is £252.50 you must spend a  further £270.80 or incur a loss of profits charge of £221.15. This charge will be automatically deducted from your account on the 31^st December 2016. Thankyou for shopping at B&Q.” So there’s your choice, buy stuff or get charged for not doing. You can’t opt out because that’s the law, you can refuse but you’d end up in court. And anyway who are you to unfairly restrict corporate profit? A terrorist? So how can we put the shoe on the other foot? Interesting problem. OK their legal logic is it’s unjust to restrict the corporate right to earn a profit; if there is profit to be made I am legally obliged to let them. Now under the common law’s recognition of quid pro quo, where something of value must be exchanged for something else of value, this concession between corporate and individual must be exchanged for a similar concession between individual and corporate. Might this be, “It is unjust to restrict the individual’s right to take readily available goods even if said individual doesn’t have the money to pay for them.” That seems to even things up heads and tails wise.