Likewise, the cost theory sees civil liability in terms of enforcement. It differs from duty theories in its view of how civil liability offers reasons for action. The duty theory suggests that one should comply with the primary and remedial obligations of private law precisely because they are obligations. They offer normative reasons, even moral reasons if one has an obligation to follow the law or if the duties instantiated in private law have independent moral force. The cost theory, in contrast, offers a reason for action only in the sense that the tax imposed on a particular course of conduct by the law should figure in one’s all-things-considered calculations of personal utility. If one agrees to pay the tax, then there is no reason not to act. Civil liability is simply the state coercing payment of the tax.