text: where does it stop? i am in the military.  to my understanding, i am payed by taxpayers. well, i pay the same taxes. so why do i help pay my own salary? to my knowledge, taxes pay for streets. so why do i pay to park on the streets i already helped pay for? where does it stop?   the military should be exempt from taxes anyway, seeing as we are the most under paid and over worked career field. i know i chose to join the military so please no cheap shots. i don't regret being in the military. i just think we deserve more than just the occasional 5-10% discount we sometimes get. considering it is the military that keeps us all safe. enough about the military because that will just start a bunch of anti war this and that stuff. i don't choose the battles. i just defend freedom.   i really just want an answer to the street question. before i joined the military, i thought about how we all pay for the construction of our streets. so why in the heck do we pay to park on them? first, thanks for your service. you are a great american.  i see where you're coming from with the parking meter thing. yes, part of your tax dollars went to pay for the streets, but not all streets have parking meters/permits. some are free to park on, some it is illegal to park on.  by making people buy permits to park on a particular street or neighborhood the local government might be trying to serve the residents of that neighborhood by limiting who parks on the street. by putting up parking meters, a city government might be trying to help local merchants by forcing a turnover of parking spots so that more customers can find parking.  there can be lots of reasons for local governments to do such things, not the least of which is to generate additional revenue to pay for city services. the real disgrace comes when the local governments are inept or corrupt and do not spend our money wisely.