I don't think it's self-serving to want taxes to be set at the level which benefits society the most, no. I don't know what kind of contradiction you see in that, although you said "others" as if I don't pay taxes too. I smile every time that tax money leaves my paycheck or bank account, because I know it's paying for all sorts of wonderful things, like police forces, firefighters, hospitals (in the UK), &c. that none of us could possibly afford if we didn't collaborate on them, yet all of us can benefit from because we do. It would be pretty ridiculous to say that I personally produce, well, computer science educations, when at the very least I need a road for all of those students to get to the university by. I'm quite evidently not asking governments to set taxes at the level which benefits me the most.
You may or may not agree that these are efficient ways for society to spend its money - my argument would be that we spend half of what the USA does on healthcare as a proportion of GDP, and per capita we have about 2/3 of your GDP, for example - but at least then we're making economic arguments about an economic decision.