[_delirium]

Having lived in cities on various parts of the city-services spectrum, I do think it overall improves the quality of life to have higher city taxes and more services (especially public transit). But fortunately people who think otherwise can choose where they want to live accordingly, since many cities are available on different parts of that spectrum. For example, if you prefer the tax/services tradeoff Houston makes to the one San Francisco makes, you can live in Houston (and many people do).