‘Tis a Puzzlement

I learned a lot about paradoxes in college. “The Paradox of Value” asks the question why is water, which is essential for life, so much less expensive than diamond rings, which are not. Zeno’s Paradox takes many forms; balls that can never hit walls or tortoises that can never cross finish lines. My favorite version came from a class about infinite series, where the clever professor gave us an example a of a sequence of swimming pools with finite volume but infinite surface area. The paradox is that you can paint an infinite surface with a finite amount of paint!

I also took a course in business law. It was a pass-fail course offering a few easy units as respite from differential equations and macroeconomics. It was taught by a real life judge who, like many attorneys, was in love with the sound of his own voice. Having a large class of college students as an audience for his stand-up routine had to be the highlight of his week. He was most entertaining and I actually learned a lot about contracts and consideration and the Universal Commercial Code.

One thing I learned in that class is minors cannot enter into contracts.

Generally, only individuals with legal capacity can enter into a contract. This means that minors, persons of unsound mind, and persons deprived of civil rights are not capable of contracting.

Our laws offer special protections and restrictions regarding minors, to protect them from the consequences of their lack of experience and wisdom. Plenty of adults lack wisdom too, but society lets them deal with the fallout from their choices. Sometimes minors are allowed to make decisions if their parents permit it. Example:

(1) Persons under the age of 18 shall not receive body piercing unless the body piercing is performed in the presence of the person’s parent or guardian.

So a 17 year old who wants a nose ring or tongue stud has to have a parent present, and presumably agreeing to the procedure. Tattoos are even more restricted. I didn’t know this until I started to research this blog, but underage tattooing is verboten, whether mom and dad agree or not:

(2) All 50 states and the District of Columbia have statutory laws requiring a person receiving a tattoo be at least 18 years old. This is partially based on the legal principle that a minor cannot enter into a legal contract or otherwise render informed consent for a procedure.

The Paradox of Value is easily resolved: Marginal Cost=Marginal Utility. However (1) and (2) above have got me scratching my head over an obvious legal paradox here in California. There are a couple of ‘procedures’ that minors can have without parents even knowing, let along consenting. California considers these ‘procedures’ more ‘minor’ than tattoos or body piercings, so ‘minors’ can decide for themselves. Even Zeno might have trouble resolving this one. ” ‘Tis a Puzzlement” indeed.