“We can’t make paying taxes pleasant, but at least we can make it simple.”
I actually don't mind paying taxes, because I can see around me every day that the money is mostly put to good use. I can imagine if I lived in a place where there were little or no public services, bad public schools, bad infrastructure, five digit annual college fees, polluted tap water, power with frequent blackouts or brownouts etc, I'd be pissed off with my tax bill too.
It sounds like you are describing different communities with different problems (i.e. Flint, MI doesn't have problems with frequent Brown outside - that was California 15 years ago) as though they are the same one. Also, most of those examples are things from state governments rather than the federal government. Of course, people don't talk much about state tax reform. State tax revenue sources can vary from property taxes to income tax to sales tax. Some states don't have an income tax and reply mainly on sales tax.
When it comes to philosophical objections to taxation, it's not the awful infrastructure around me that bothers me, it's the bombs dropped on other people's children and the bars that confine people for no morally justifiable reason.
My heart goes out to the people held in torturous conditions in prison on my tax dollar. I hope that I someday have the strength to resist and refuse to pay for this.
I actually don't mind paying taxes, because I can see around me every day that the money is mostly put to good use. I can imagine if I lived in a place where there were little or no public services, bad public schools, bad infrastructure, five digit annual college fees, polluted tap water, power with frequent blackouts or brownouts etc, I'd be pissed off with my tax bill too.