Microeconomics,, 16th Canadian Edition

would continue to use hospitals and attend schools even if the various
levels of government did not provide these goods and instead left more
money in people’s pockets. Thus, in many cases, the government is
levying taxes to raise money to finance goods that people would have
purchased anyway. To recognize that we often benefit directly from
government spending, however, in no way denies that it is often wasteful,
and sometimes worse.