While I'm not your commenter parent I do share his sentiment: The way a 'liberal' (in the European sense) republic is supposed to work is that the people choose to support it by their own will. This is a direct extension of the idea that the people rule (democracy). The government is nothing but an employee of the collective and - ideally - everyone agrees with its goals at least so much that they pay the taxes thought to be necessary to accomplish them.

Background: I'm Swiss and this is more or less how the relationship between government and people works here. Besides the people's right to take down / create any law collectively, the tax system also works in a way that tax evasions are not regarded as illegal the same way you do. People are obligated to 'list their stuff' every year - if it turns out they 'forgot' something, it is simply paid later - only some minor monetary punishment involved, never jailtime. It only becomes a crime if someone forges documents - which is hardly ever done. The banking secrecy plays a big role in this - it's basically the Swiss government saying 'we will never directly look into your books and trust the informations you give us'. It's the behavior of a subordinate who trusts that he's fairly compensated by his employer.

Interestingly, Swiss tax moral is said to be very high, despite this lax system.