Note 94 — XVII. PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SERVICES.

“The moment this value is handed over by the taxpayer, it is lost to him; the moment it is consumed by the Government, it is lost to everybody, and does not return to society.”—J. B. Say, Traité d’Économie Politique, liv. iii. chap 9.

Unquestionably; but society gains in return the service which is rendered to it—security, for example. Moreover, Say returns to the correct doctrine almost immediately afterwards, when he says,—“To levy a tax is to do a wrong to society—a wrong which is compensated by no advantage, when no service is rendered to society in exchange.”—Ibid.