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Absolutely. So what constitutes a "fair share" of financing these necessities? Should we ask people to pay for their own health care? If not, should we penalize people for poor choices, like bad nutrition or obesity or smoking or reckless behavior? Should we ask people to pay for infrastructure based on how much they consume (a gas tax, for example)?
We can all agree that the abuses chronicled about the 1% of the 1% of the 1% (like Buffett) who can afford extraordinary tax shelters aren't good. But for the rest, the relatively wealthier are paying a heck of a lot more for the same services. Do they deserve all that vitriol? By most measures they are already paying considerably more than a fair share.
I think many people are tired of adding entitlements to government. There's always a worthy entitlement. But when we complain because the schools no longer fund gifted education and the roads are falling apart, people who aren't paying much, if any, taxes tell us we should be paying more taxes.
And if we try, responsibly, to save for our retirements rather than trying to buy bigger and bigger houses or boats or cars or other toys, then we're told that the hyper-inflation we'll endure sooner or later because our government refuses to stay within its budget is no big deal. Of course it's no big deal if you have nothing saved for the future.
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