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Today's gas prices are lowest in history of USA. You can buy a gallon of gas for 10 cents.

Of-course you need a dime that was minted prior to 1965 and had silver in it.

Wouldn't help, you'd still be on the 3rd biggest price spike in the last half-century:

http://www.fintrend.com/inflation/inflation_rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Chart.asp

This will be a supremely unpopular stance among a large section here - but taxes are one of the best bargains in any marketplace.

It's also not even wrong. You don't understand what "marketplace" means. I can't just choose who I get taxed by without considerable effort (namely, move to another locale and jump through whatever immigration hurdles there are). A market implies that you have choice.

Taxes buy infrastructure.

As other repliers noted, taxes also destroy infrastructure. If you want a contemporary example, taxes pay for the Department of Homeland Security whose primary claims to fame is wasteful security theater at airports (which harms air travel infrastructure by delaying passengers and making air travel less efficient) and dropping the ball on Katrina.

Taxes buy culture.

Sounds like someone who doesn't have a clue what "culture" is.

Education systems may not be ideal

Taxes buy education inflation. Education costs have increased at a rate three times that of regular inflation since 1985. If there was no money spent on education, we'd still have the top college system in the world. And our K-12 system would still suck except for the people who can buy an education for their children. Just like it does now (keep in mind that some people buy a good K-12 public education by buying an expensive house in the right school district).

Simply being able to have conversations and do business across large nations like the US is one small bit.

Would still happen without government interference or money. Internet or telephone were inevitable ideas and mostly developed by private sector.

but the return is enormous

If you ignore the costs and the return. Sure. A classic example is the NASA "spinoffs", a huge list of developments that allegedly were sponsored by NASA. This list ignores that most such spinoffs weren't developed by NASA, would have been developed anyway, or have a trivial NASA involvement which has been ridiculously stretched to taint future private investment. The flaw here is that the value of the NASA contribution is grossly overinflated.

From tools, to access to shared resources, to even the ability to shape the system you live in - taxes buy a lot more than a simple minarchy would allow.

Even if we ignore that private sector already provides most such stuff, you still don't have evidence for your assertions other than that government does stuff. I have this suspicion that if the only legal way to wipe your ass was via an official ass-wiper from the Bureau of Efficient Ass-Wiping, then ass-wiping would be added to the list of virtues of tax payments, even though it's pretty clear that we can wipe our asses without government intervention.

What's surprising is how often people will directly vote to have the rich pay less taxes, and the poor pay more - that part never made sense to me, given how much shared sacrifice already goes into providing people with the tools to become rich - it just doesn't seem like they need more protection all the time.

I imagine it's a combination of two things. First, ignorance on your part about the tax system, who pays what, and the interests of the voters in question. And two, people realize the value of rich people. Poor people don't employ other people.

But that's part of taxes also - they will be spent as the people's representatives allow them to be spent. Keep electing people and allowing them to be bribed constantly with no checks in place to stop the rising corruption on all sides, and you will keep getting taxes wasted - wasted by the system you allow to grow

A gallon.

http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/gasol .htm
http://www.fintrend.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/G asoline_Inflation.asp
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2005/04/gas oline_prices.html

Gas prices are higher than they've ever been.

Second, current price of oil is currently at $63.25/bbl and has yet to ever reach $70/bbl.

gas/oil has never been cheaper when adjusted for inflation

It's nowhere near the inflation-adjusted high, but it has been much cheaper. See here; as of today it's at around $41/barrel.

I do get annoyed by peakoil scaremongerers who ignore the fact that people continue making new finds around the world - even in bizarre places where we've never even thought of looking before, such as granite basement rock (????... ok, someone explain to me how that one works ;) And yet, look at Vietnam, and all of its granite fields like White Tiger...).

Here is what ExxonMobil has to say about the matter. Hardly scaremongering.

Add to the mix the fact that some oil companies have been overestimating their oil reserves, and you have a looming problem that is notscaremongering. Are we adapting (using our oil resources more wisely/conserving)? Not really.

The total fleet fuel economy peaked in 1987 at 26.2 mpg when light trucks made up a mere 28.1 percent of the market. By 2001 with light trucks making up 46.7 percent of the market total fleet fuel economy fell to 24.4 mpg.

The standards for all light trucks manufactured is set at 21.0 mpg for MY 2005, 21.6 mpg for MY 2006, and 22.2 mpg for MY 2007. This rule is effective May 5, 2003.

BTW, none of theses views are from "liberal environmentalist caremongerers" (whoever the heck they are.)

Cheers- raga

I do get annoyed by peakoil scaremongerers who ignore the fact that people continue making new finds around the world - even in bizarre places where we've never even thought of looking before, such as granite basement rock (????... ok, someone explain to me how that one works ;) And yet, look at Vietnam, and all of its granite fields like White Tiger...).

Here is what ExxonMobil has to say about the matter. Hardly scaremongering.

Add to the mix the fact that some oil companies have been overestimating their oil reserves, and you have a looming problem that is notscaremongering. Are we adapting (using our oil resources more wisely/conserving)? Not really.

The total fleet fuel economy peaked in 1987 at 26.2 mpg when light trucks made up a mere 28.1 percent of the market. By 2001 with light trucks making up 46.7 percent of the market total fleet fuel economy fell to 24.4 mpg.

The standards for all light trucks manufactured is set at 21.0 mpg for MY 2005, 21.6 mpg for MY 2006, and 22.2 mpg for MY 2007. This rule is effective May 5, 2003.

BTW, none of theses views are from "liberal environmentalist caremongerers" (whoever the heck they are.)

Cheers- raga