Imagine other investments supplying roads, police, fire, parks, and education (or at least a place to store kids during work day) for 12 years.

That argument can be made about the usefulness of taxes on anything.

Yes, I know. Taxes and social constructs such as governments ARE useful.

That seems like the wrong way to think about things. That funding, then, is predicated on inflated, consequently inaccurate, housing/property values. When the bubble bursts for any reason the funding source will be reduced.

Critical services banking on a bubble to sustain themselves is just a terrible (though often done) idea. Eliminating the bubble earlier and getting accurate valuations before becoming dependent on the inflated amount (and suffering from austerity efforts later) would be a much better (and rarely done) plan.

MID pays for my property tax (bay area).

Without a property tax payment, my mortgage payments are very close to what rent should be.

In fact, a couple of years on, it's already less than rent for a comparable place.

Sounds like a lot of mutual funds...

I thought with mutual funds you still pay taxes only on the profits. With property taxes you pay it on the current value.

Mutual funds charge you a percentage fee, with or without profits.

So when somebody says, "imagine if your investment accounts charged a percentage" that is precisely what mutual funds do.

Well, if you rent, you're paying the owner's property taxes anyway, and you're definitely not going to realize any profits.

It depends on the market. I have rented places in the Bay Area where my rent was less than the owner's mortgage. This was pre-2008, though.