Who should pay?

It seems to me that there's been a big argument going on behind the scenes over the last decade or so over the extent to which services which benefit society as a whole should be paid for by all of us as taxpayers, or only by those who use the service - or maybe some combination of the two. Higher education (university top-up fees), the rail service (ticket prices) and now the postal service are currently in the spotlight, but I suppose, thinking about it, it all really started with the introduction of prescription charges back in the early 50s, which was a complete repudiation of the original concept of the NHS. Since then, there seems to have been a growing tendency towards the idea that users rather than taxpayers should foot the bill for a service - even when the service clearly benefits non-users, albeit indirectly. In great part, I suppose this is down to successive governments of both colours wishing to be seen as tax-cutters, or at the very least not as tax-increasers. Perhaps it's time we realised as a nation that we can't have top-line services unless we are all prepared to pay for them.