A whole lot of what we have in America today is here because we're living off of capital investments made by my grandparents. (Sometimes literally: My grandfather was one of the construction workers on Interstate 5 through the Cascades in Northern California, something I think about every time I drive through there like I will be next weekend.) I think a whole lot of people have come complete disconnected from why we pay taxes.

Of course I'd rather have more money in my pocket come payday. But I also like having all of those services. I guess the loony-type Libertarians assume that Private Industry would provide all of those services (more efficiently and cheaply) than the Government. Well, among other things, a completely-private postal service would stop making deliveries to anything other than the largest cities, and a private road network would have toll booths every few miles, while your local roads would be returned to gravel. (As is happening now, according to an article I saw recently.) The streetlights would go out unless you wanted to pay personally for the one in front of your house. (I'm in a rural town right now where that's exactly how it works, as it's unincorporated and if you want a streetlight, you go put it up yourself and pay the electric bill yourself.)

But some of them probably think that's a Good Thing.