A New Amendment

I’d love to see a new amendment to the Constitution to the effect of the following:

Congress shall make no laws regulating the right to form voluntary contracts. No federal laws shall be made to favor labor, management, service providers, consumers or any other party to a contract legally agreed upon by consenting adults. Contracts shall be defined to include legally authorized and signed written agreements and purchases or trades under free and voluntary agreement, but shall not include verbal agreements. Contracts shall be declared void, and a punishment predetermined by Congress shall be assigned by judicial review, if either party fails to meet the criteria agreed upon, or if the contract is determined in a court of law to be agreed upon by force or fraudulent presentation.

The intent of this new amendment is simple but broad. Consenting adults may do whatever they choose with other consenting adults if a contract is signed. Provided they do not infract on the rights of another, adults may do as they choose. Policeable offenses should only include those which interfere with the protected rights of another. This is what is meant by freedom. Adults should not require nannying by any federal authority, but shall choose their own fate as they wish.

Adults may enter into contracts with each other as they wish. You can buy what you want, you can do what you want. But goods and services must be as they claim, no exchanges shall be made deceitfully, as this violates the rights of another’s property by the use of fraud. This shall require fairly strict disclosure rules, requiring all relevant information to be given before a contract is signed.

But more to the specific point, this amendment would prevent government from intervening in business contracts, including labor contracts. Labor unions could still exists, but government could not lawfully favor them in any way and force businesses to cede to their demands. Business and labor would have equal footing, thus allowing market forces to determine employees’ value and employers’ power. Without federal union protection, businesses have equal power in contract negotiations, and can do the best thing for their company. This will spike company productivity, lower costs and therefore prices, improve the general standard of living, and accelerate economic growth.

What’s more, this would prevent government from restricting consumption. You can buy what you want: energy-wasting light bulbs, pot, SUVs, experimental medicines, etc. Government would have no power to tell you what to buy. Consumers would have no nanny protection that result in huge price increases to protect them from their own choices. Companies would simply have to be honest about their product and consumers would decide for themselves what risks they’re willing to live with.

But there are maybe a handful people in Congress who don’t have a god complex and think that their job is to save people from themselves. The chances of such an amendment passing are as slim as Nancy Pelosi’s reconstructed nose. But we can always hope…