Voluntary government financing
“ In Regis arbitrio non esse privata civium bona. Non ergo aut universa aut partem decerpet nisi ex eorum voluntate, quorum in iure sunt.
[Private goods of the citizens are not at the King’s disposal. Therefore, he cannot take some or all of them without the consent of the rightful owners.]
- — Juan de Mariana, 1609
“ In a fully free society, taxation—or, to be exact, payment for governmental services—would be voluntary. Since the proper services of a government—the police, the armed forces, the law courts—are demonstrably needed by individual citizens and affect their interests directly, the citizens would (and should) be willing to pay for such services, as they pay for insurance.
The question of how to implement the principle of voluntary government financing—how to determine the best means of applying it in practice—is a very complex one and belongs to the field of the philosophy of law. The task of political philosophy is only to establish the nature of the principle and to demonstrate that it is practicable. The choice of a specific method of implementation is more than premature today—since the principle will be practicable only in a fully free society, a society whose government has been constitutionally reduced to its proper, basic functions.
“ The principle of voluntary government financing rests on the following premises: that the government is not the owner of the citizens’ income and, therefore, cannot hold a blank check on that income—that the nature of the proper governmental services must be constitutionally defined and delimited, leaving the government no power to enlarge the scope of its services at its own arbitrary discretion. Consequently, the principle of voluntary government financing regards the government as the servant, not the ruler, of the citizens—as an agent who must be paid for his services, not as a benefactor whose services are gratuitous, who dispenses something for nothing.
Current possibilities
- Gifts to the U.S. Government: How do I make a contribution to the U.S. government?
- Direct form link: Donations to the U.S. Government
