Right now Ireland is in the middle of the biggest economic boom it has ever experienced. The origin of this boom can be traced back to 1968, when the Government introduced free second level education. The Irish taxpayer has invested a huge sum of money in education in the last 29 years. If the pundits are right when they say that knowledge is the key to the economic future, then the Irish taxpayer can expect to go on paying a lot of money to support the education system. If anything, the cost is likely to rise dramatically in the near future as the government moves to integrate computers into the educational system.
Education is only one aspect of a sophisticated modern society.
Our taxes keep the sewers working and the police force paid. The US taxpayer funded the creation and development of the internet. It was taxpayers' dollars that developed the first database. Private enterprise would not and could not have funded it. Governments are very inefficient, and a lot of our taxes are wasted.