And they were all total garbage. Roads were a mess, sometimes paid for by private individuals to suit their own interests. Rich people had better quality roads than poor people, but travel was terrible basically everywhere. Roads were also sometimes built and maintained by the use of slaves and forced labor (corvée) where local courts just ordered people to start digging while letting rich people buy their way out of their obligation, while poor people were stuck serving out their time.
Policing often depended partly on volunteers, while once again, rich people routinely hired private police/security/slave patrols and poor people got little protection comparatively.
Garbage collection was just people dumping their shit wherever they felt like it, including into water supplies.
All the same problems with schools too. Schools were for the rich or the religious, and even when the country saw a need for public schools they were a huge mess. (https://ushistoryscene.com/article/rise-of-public-education/)
Taxes gave us organized systems and standards that meant that services like roads and policing and trash collection were more consistent and a little less dependent on how much money you had. Things are so much better now thanks to taxes that I can't imagine anyone wanting to go back to how things were before them.
Policing often depended partly on volunteers, while once again, rich people routinely hired private police/security/slave patrols and poor people got little protection comparatively.
Garbage collection was just people dumping their shit wherever they felt like it, including into water supplies.
All the same problems with schools too. Schools were for the rich or the religious, and even when the country saw a need for public schools they were a huge mess. (https://ushistoryscene.com/article/rise-of-public-education/)
Taxes gave us organized systems and standards that meant that services like roads and policing and trash collection were more consistent and a little less dependent on how much money you had. Things are so much better now thanks to taxes that I can't imagine anyone wanting to go back to how things were before them.