The Economy of the Coalition of Western Republics

The Coalition is one of the few states in history to make the bold claim that they do not tax their people. If one glances at the Coalition's laws, they would find that this is true: the Coalition government is barred from issuing any taxation laws. In practice, of course, this is not the case. The Coalition's secret police alone eats up more dollars per year than many planetary governments have in their entire economy. The Coalition solves its funding problems mainly through one ingenious method: contract fees.

According to Coalition philosophy, all states and societies are nothing more than contracts between individuals to stave off anarchy and bring stability. The purpose of this stability is to create a safe, free market where individuals compete with one another for supremacy. The state exists as a sort of umpire, ensuring that cheating (disrespecting property rights) is not allowed, but in order to do its job the state must have some sort of funding. Taxation is the simplest way to do this, but Coalition ideologues have one problem with taxation: it is coerced payment.

While Coalition ideology has no problem with coercion in respect to society and culture, they hold property to be sacred and any form of coerced activity in the market is immoral and will eventually force the system to degrade to communism. Taxation, they argue, is nothing more than fees citizens pay to have their property protected by the state, something that is sound if kept voluntary. And so the Coalition issued the system of contract fees, voluntary payments to the Coalition state in exchange for legal and physical protection. These fees are, in theory, completely voluntary. If one does not wish to pay their contract fees, they may choose to do so. However, refusal to pay has dire results that motivate most people to pay.

If a Coalitionist, for one reason or another, refuses to pay any contract fees, he is effectively an outlaw. His citizenship is revoked, he has no legal, political and social rights whatsoever and his property considered fair game for any who wish to take it. If one chooses to murder one of these vagrants, the Coalition government would not prosecute; in fact, as far as the government is concerned, the murdered individual never existed. If a vagrant steps on any land owned by the Coalition state, he is a trespasser and will be arrested. As a result, most vagrants desperately try to hide their situation, as if they are found to be one various criminal organizations would swoop down on them.

Contract fees come in many forms, with higher payments granting more and more rights. The "basic" package, one with a monthly fee of about $50, is the most common, and provides basic benefits such as citizenship, legal recognition of property and police and military protection. A "bronze" package, which is $100 a month, includes added benefits such as freedom of speech and worship within private property. Silver packages, about $2000 a month, allows for the ownership of guns and freedom of speech and worship on state property, and the ability to requisition local police for any job that does not involve actively opposing the state. Gold packages, an amazing $50,000 a month, allow almost complete freedom of action within private property, including communication with citizens of communist powers, freedom of drug use, freedom to own and use prostitutes, freedom to own nuclear weaponry, freedom to refuse searches by any police forces, the ability to hire Coalition military for activities not opposing the state, and most importantly the right to vote in planetary elections. In addition to these contract packages, a particularly wealthy businessman can buy stock in the Coalition government (nicknamed the "platinum package"), giving them a vote in the Coalition Congress equal to the percent of stock they own and partial power to impeach the Supreme Director.