If poetry is a waste of time, it is only my own time I am wasting.
I agree that the money spent can now be taxed to build a road. But if the money had gone directly towards building a road, I'd now have a road. As it is, I'll only see about 30% of that money coming back in taxes.
If I wanted to build a road, it would have been a LOT cheaper and faster to do so directly than first building a helicopter on another planet.