Megan wants to clarify the tax debate. "What most of us are really in favor of is higher taxes on other people. If we wanted higher taxes on ourselves, we'd give the money to charity."
In some sort of a crazy-assed world, I guess it would be nice if I got to live in a great house and got great schools, but got other people to pay for it for me. If being a libertarian means getting stuff for nothing, then sign me up, baby!
I want to live in a town with good schools, so I'm willing to pay more taxes for it. I care more about education than cars or shoes, so I like to give my money to the town to purchase books for my kids and pay qualified teachers. I care so much about schools, that I'm willing to pay more money in taxes to improve the quality of schools even more. Even if my taxes were to double, it would still be cheaper than private schools for two kids. Since I don't have time to home school and don't want to organize a school myself, I'm very pleased that the town government has arranged a system where I simply write them a check and then they pick up my kid with the school bus ever morning at 8:30.
Of course, this all sounds terribly spoiled. I recognize that we're lucky to pay our town's taxes without stress and could even envision moving to a different town with even better schools with even higher taxes.
UPDATE: Biting comments from Henry Farrell.