It's a particularly baffling question given that taxpayers rarely paid for a setup of a whole lot of public institutions, like, say, public libraries. But now it's like "You'll be taking MY money!" when in reality it was the very rich who didn't mind funding stuff like museums or hospitals or giant research medical centers (Gates doesn't even come close in that regard). Like usual it's the behaviour of the very rich that drives a lot of public life. And also of course a constant demonizing of ANY kind of 'socialism' (COMMUNISM), i.e. we're all in this together, vaccinate your kid for herd immunity, public infrastructures are good even if you own a car, and the concurrent glorifying of "screw you Jack I've got mine" (someday when you've got about three hours just ask me what Tim Eyman did to the infrastructure of Seattle, go on, just ask me, just make sure you have booze on hand).

-- Moi, channeling her dad circa about 1993