Tax gets misused many times like funding NASA "planet mars mission". There are more meteorite hits on Mars than on Earth but they are spending tax payers multi-million dollars on Mars missions.
Funny things like this makes someone thinks that the leaders are just spending the money as they seem it fit whether its impacting directly to the citizens or not. I wonder the amount of funds that would that would have been expended in the research and finding of energy in another planet that we all know we are not going whether now or in the future.
However, to say all of the money used for all of this is only from taxes would be wrong. Government generate money from other sources through import and export sources. For countries that have advantages in certain commercial products tend to sell abroad for huge amount of money while those with the right amount of population tend to be import dependent and generate money on that. Tax is really not optional and by definition, its not commensurate to what you see as some expenditure would bring direct effect whereas others would bring indirect and long term benefits.
Yeah, I still don't get of others point saying that our taxes are being corrupted by the government officials, like who are they to conclude tho? The sidewalk where you walk, the park you've been stand by for a time, the traffic enforcers who regulate the high ways they are made and all paid by our taxes. Ever wonder why few countries has a astronomical facility? because the taxes that citizens paid is large enough to have that kind of thing.