Are Contracts Truely Voluntary?

Question

Capitalists will often argue that when you sign a contract,
any authority an employer has over you is legitimate because you "voluntarily" agreed to it.
Does voluntarily agreeing to something necessarily make it "ok"?

Comments

"Anarcho" capitalists. "Libertarians".

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kinda both, but definitely the emphasis on pro-capitalists pseudo-'anarchs' and conservative minarchist pro-busyness types.

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thanks to both of you.

i don't know many people who refer to themselves in any of those terms...

yet almost all the people i talk with give arguments as both of you described if i broach the subjects of employment, money, etc.

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i've come across them. they tend to see their views as 'the logical conclusion' if the State were removed. they see this conclusion as a good thing, whereas i don't, nor do i see their conclusion as at all possible without a State, or in any way 'anarchic' or desirable. most other people, as you say, give these types of arguments without much thought, though they usually want to appear 'moral' in the sense that they want some type of regulatory apparatus in order to check the shitty outcomes of their own --logical conclusion.

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okay, yeah, i see the difference between the two...although i feel infuriated to pretty much the same degree in either case when discussing that "logic".

Answer 1

It is not contractual relationships themselves that anarchists take heed to, but rather the circumstances of such relations. We look to expand the arsenal of choices accessible to the people, as opposed to deciding among the available.

As an example, the owner of a slave could give the slave a choice to move rocks back and forth or endure whippings on the back; simply because there is a choice available does not entail the likes of a voluntary relationship. The slave picks to move rocks not because they would like to, but rather because it is merely preferable to the alternative.

When capitalists express their enthusiasm for contractual relationships, they do so in comparison to non-contractual-relationships, i.e. forced relationships. As anarchists wish to expand one's access to relations, an argument of these likes would equate to a misrepresentation fallacy, as well as a false dichotomy fallacy.

If, by chance, you are having trouble understanding my response, I would highly recommend BadMouseProduction's "But they have a choice!"; it explains this idea concisely.

@dot Am I allowed to use external links?

Comments

of course you can use external links.

just please, in an answer, don't rely on the external link to make your case for you.

in a comment, you can do whatever you want.

thanks for asking.