> it's absurd to use road maintenance as the reason why the government needs more money. far from absurd, it's an extremely good example. The USA is filled wit

> it's absurd to use road maintenance as the reason why the government needs more money. far from absurd, it's an extremely good example. The USA is filled with public infrastructure that we collectively decided to create but that we do not maintain adequately, because we choose not to spend money on it. You say our roads suck, and to whatever extent that is true (not really interested in debating that specific point), it's because not enough is spent maintaining them. Now of course, it's entirely possible that this situation does in fact represent the actual collective opinion of the population: yes we'll build stuff, no we will not pay (enough) to maintain it. But that has not been established.