My wife got into an argument with a liberal a while back in which they cited how wonderful taxation was because it builds roads, schools, etc and to cut taxes is both stupid and evil ... this liberal cited the Roman Empire as an example of how taxation creates a great society.

Anyway, she stumbled across the following article (from the Cato Journal back in 1994) while researching her rebuttal.

How Excessive Government Killed Ancient Rome.

An interesting (and frankly troubling) read (although I expect folk in this crowd won't find it all that surprising).