Social contract is defined as an implicit agreement among the members of an organized society between the ruled and the rulers. This is to guide each other behaviors and establish personal rights and responsibilities. Social contract is important for any societal behavior and in democratic societies it is embedded in the constitution.
How it has been impacted by the Government Policies.
A policy is a plan as of a government that guides decisions to achieve and or influence decisions; hence these are the principles that guide the government. The social contract implies that the state does exist to serve the people’s will and that the people are the source of government power, they are free to withhold government power but also have the ability to give power to the government and the ideas in it also limits government, individual rights and thus their sovereignty. Hence because most Americans do believe that the government requires the consent of the governed, ‘‘ that the idea of social contract may come as close to a public philosophy as we’ve ever had” (Mark, 2007).
While he government has been following the guidelines of a social contract in the last 30 years, many aspects of the government have outgrown and been taken over. The current federal system of government in the United States of America is thus failing to meet its social contract obligations to the American people; this can be best demonstrated by the current several thousands of jobs in the government which have been up for the taking unlike when it was in the 1980’s. Also due to the fact that the government has grown exponentially and thus added some extra new positions and departments to ‘ better’ serve the people, these, in turn, has generated higher levels of social expenditure but in fact taxing them more and failing to meet all their obligations.
There’s also evidence to show that the federal government’s contribution to the housing projects have decreased over time since the 1980’s,” in 1981, the federal government directed about $3 billion a year to the New York city’s capital program and non-profit groups to finance public housing. Today it contributes less than $1 billion….” Thus the $2 billion that was not received was due to the Reagan administration housing cut, which couuld otherwise, built 25, 000 housing units even at a high price of $80, 000 per unit. The preceding Governments have neither made the situation better, that some people have labeled the homelessness in America as a” Government issue” (Schwartz, Ferlauto and Hoffman).
On the issue of immigration, this has become not only a U. S domestic issue but also a foreign policy, but more often than not, immigration discussions fails to take into account attitudes towards the sending countries. This is more true to Mexico that president George W. Bush declared that “ Mexico has a special category and condition as a partner and also as a neighbor of the United States…”(La Reforma 2002). This has the U. S policy makers failing to take into account for the feasibility of future policies, hence shattering the social contract dream to its citizens. This is because immigrants are usually poorer and do pay less tax and do receive public benefits like the natives. The national research council , NRC , found that the average immigrant generate a fiscal deficit of $2, 408 per household, with 9 million immigrants in 2007, this represents more than $30 billion of the government deficits represents money from taxpayers to immigrants.
