"Well you choose to live here, so..."

You've heard the argument before, and you yourself have probably made it before. In short, it says that since you "choose" to live here, you agree to the government and laws here, and all of the obligations the government prescribes apply to you because you agreed to them by contract.

Now, we all know that those who make this argument don't pretend that the U.S.-born among us made that "choice" when we were born. Nobody chooses where they get born. And all of us know that the "choice" wasn't about where we'll grow up. We all know that nobody chooses where they get raised. So already we can see that it makes a pretty weak case for government's authority over young children.

The argument only makes one bit of sense when it refers to an in-action. By not leaving, we choose to stay - so the argument goes. Of course, this assumes that finding a new country to live in is as easy as finding a new apartment to move into. If you want to make that case, go ahead and try.

The difficulty of trying to shop for governments aside, there is one major downside to trying to make this kind of argument. Once you make this argument, you remove the grounds for any authority-based criticism you have of government. You can't argue about Constitutional limits to government because - well - you choose to live in this country! Don't like the way this government does things? Find another country! The government can take your property whenever it wants, because you voluntarily assent to that authority by staying on land within its borders. Don't like it? Well you chose it! You can't argue about wars, abortions, or taxes. By not leaving, you agree to the actions that this government takes, and if this government finds you guilty of terrorism and decides to kill you, well then you have the procedural duty to die because that's the obligation you take on by not leaving.

If government authority is to make any sense (and I don't think it makes any), then it has to be based on something other than your "voluntary" agreement to live under it. No one gets complete and arbitrary authority over you when you just happen to be on their territory. When I was a Junior in college I believed government gets its authority not from consent of the governed, but by its protection of and respect for its subjects' rights. I was of course presuming that government can possibly respect people's rights by forcing them to patronize it...