Has anyone ever seen Monty Python"s Life of Brian and the "what have the Romans done for us?" speech. They go on to mention the aqueduct, sanitation, roads, irrigation, medicine, education, and they brought peace by having public order (ie. the police). Needless to say it turned out there were many thing the Romans had done for Britain. Well in our day all those things are available because we pay taxes. And if none of us want to pay taxes, noone would have any of those advantages.

On a similar subject in an article in the Times Thomas Friedman:

I only wish she (Sarah Palin) had been asked: "Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn't from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?" That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.

Sorry, I grew up in a very middle-class family in a very middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, and my parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly. No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: "I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization."
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I'm not fond of all taxes myself but why are they considered evil by so many? I like the civilization and society I get in return.