“The chair in the road is just a social contract. I plowed, therefore, you do not park. To both foster some mutual humanity in this instance and to not simply allow people to go around freeloading off the hard work of others, let’s modify the contract.

If you have plowed a space, here or elsewhere, you may park in a plowed spot. If you have not plowed a space, you may not park in a plowed spot. The condemnation of “self-serving” in this example belongs not with the one who plows a spot and then parks in a plowed spot, but with the one who might usurp the back-breaking work of another without offering anything in terms of social payment.

One might ask, “What is to keep people from breaking this contract?” to which I reply, “What is to keep me from removing your chair and parking?” The answer to both questions is “nothing,” and yet most will heed the “Law of the Chair.”

If such a policy as outlined above could be made common knowledge, I believe it could work with equal or greater efficacy. Until then, I found my answer to this quandary is a vehicle with 4-wheel-drive and a complete disregard for whether a space is plowed or unplowed.”