[kcowan]

Quote:

My taxes should be used for things that I can at least in part derive benefit from. Schools, roads, libraries all qualify.

The thing is that any common service that is taxpayer-funded will be unfair to someone. Childless couples or singles. Shut-ins. Blind people. The role of government is ideally to decide which services make sense for the community as a whole.

A fire department is a subsidy to keep insurance costs down in the extreme case. Yet we have come to accept it as an essential service. So there is a large base of "common sense" that firms the basis for our society. Charitable programs and welfare form part of that base in western societies.