Government Financing in a Free Society

(Originally written July 20, 2006 in Book 3)

Government Financing in a Free Society

"In a fully free society, taxation... would be voluntary" (Rand, 116).

Voluntary governmental financing is not plausible today. It would be the last step, not first, in forming a fully free society.

Voluntary government financing rests on a number of premises:
1) The government is not the owner of the citizens' income and, therefore cannot hold a blank check on that income
2) The nature of proper governmental services must be constitutionally defined and delimited.
3) The government must be a servant to the people, not the people to the government

The government must be viewed by the people as a paid servant for voluntary funding to work.

The pay that one would give to the government would be proportional to the pay that the individual earns, simply because those who earn more use more government services in their personal transactions, i.e. A rich man would want to pay for better police protection than a poor man because a criminal would want to rob a rich man rather than a poor one.