Very helpful article. Most citizens don’t understand that what was always the bedrock of Public Finance, Public Good. Unlike a private good like a diner out or a pack of gum or a new car, a public good is one that is consumed by all just by it’s nature of being “public”, think fresh air or dirty air for that matter. Because public goods are consumed by all it has been agreed that their cost should be equitably spread among all, mostly in the form of a generally applied tax. It’s when “spread among” is abused in the form of exclusive exemptions or cheating that public finance fails and so does our ability to breathe, travel and talk.