As a person from a country similar to Romania, I can empathize with him. When you lose trust in the state and how they spend your money, even a 1% tax is too much.
I think the countries where you actually get your money's worth when it comes to taxes is very small, and even then, it's not clear whether it's due to good policy or merely luck and riding off previous successes that are being eroded by short-sightedness, stupidity/incompetence or corruption (also known as "lobbying" in the West).