Any program of voluntary government financing has to be regarded as a goal for
a distant future.
What the advocates of a fully free society have to know, at present, is only
the principle by which that goal can be achieved.
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.