[bko]

People should pay for services they use.

Highway system is mostly funded through gasoline tax, which although not perfect, is pretty good proxy for how much you use public roads.

Regarding police, private security does exist and works pretty well. Whether you're installing an alarm on your home or paying off-duty police to escort you around, it's an option and often provides better service and more options due to the profit incentive.

I wish more public services had a profit incentive as long as there was a choice. Like with fire insurance, I can choose my coverage and its priced competitively. The insurance company also has an incentive to not have your house burn down, so they mandate you have fire detectors and other such preventative measures. Seems like a pretty good system.

[giraffe_lady]

> People should pay for services they use.

You say this like it's a fact I have to accept but it simply isn't. It's an ideological position I wasn't convinced of at the beginning of this conversation and still am not.

[bko]

I think "pay for something you use" is not an ideological position. This is a lesson we teach 3 year olds. "That's not yours" is in fact one of the very first lessons we teach children. And it's not specific to any one culture or country. Pretty basic stuff.

[sagarm]

The highway system does not pay for itself with usage fees; last I checked 50% of its funding came from the general fund.