Yes, introduce use taxes that fully pay for such infrastructure. Stop overbuilding everything--no reason to make a 4 lane overpass when 2 is sufficient.

What’s the cost difference in % from building 2 vs 4? What happens if in 10 years you really do need 4? Sometimes it’s smart to overbuild things with a long lifespan.

All good questions that are not actually answered when they make those decisions. What does 'need' mean? What is the maintenance cost of maintaining two lanes of road that might be needed in 10 years?

Often road widening is based on projections (which are almost universally wrong): https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2021/09/09/every-traffic-pr...

The post you're responding to was pretty obviously sarcastic... Note their use of quotes around "socialism" and "the free market, and the phrase "any day now".

So the other poster was making the exact same point that you made (unsarcastically), but it sounds like you may not have realized that? At any rate, you both seem to be largely in agreement about the current state of affairs.

Our "state expenses" in no way reflect the immediate needs of the people or any kind of popular democratic will. The average citizen in the US gets extremely little from the state relative to the taxes they pay, so opposing higher taxes is very rational.

Agreed. It's not the amount of taxes per se, it's the (perception of) value. Few are favor of higher taxes because they currently feel that they get (next to) nothing from what they pay now. Who wants to pay more for more nothing??

> Few are favor of higher taxes because they currently feel that they get (next to) nothing from what they pay now. Who wants to pay more for more nothing??

Interestingly, a lot of these people also aren't in favor of paying less for less nothing.

You're going to have to unpack that please. Where are ppl against lower taxes?