> tons of people ride the subway who can afford to pay 2-5x as much Tons of people check out books from the public library when they could easily afford spendi

> tons of people ride the subway who can afford to pay 2-5x as much Tons of people check out books from the public library when they could easily afford spending $1 per book. Tons of people send their kids to public schools when they could easily afford paying $1,000 per year. And we know people will spend $30,000/year to send those kids to private school. Tons of people will use public parks when they could easily afford a $1 entrance fee. And people will pay for private parks, like Gramercy Park in NYC. People value public libraries, and public schools, and public parks. (And a lot of people value the right to vote, even though they pay nothing for it.) I therefore don't see that your argument holds much weight.