The lack of understanding of how taxes work in the US is too damn high. Everyone gets a $16k standard deduction, which means that no one even owes federal income taxes until they earn more than that. We then have brackets. The first bracket is 10% up to $12k and 12% up to about $50k. If your income is $45k, you pay taxes on $29k after the standard deduction, and your rate is 10% on the first $12k and 12% on the next $17k. That's $1200 + $2040 = $3240. $3240 is 7.2% of $45,000. Payroll taxes add another $3400, bringing the total federal taxes owed to $6640 or 14.7%. (Or if self-employed you pay 15% more instead of 7.5% more, because policymakers only pretend they like small businesses and entrepreneurs) Another thing many don't seem to understand is how brackets work. If you're in the 24% bracket and you get kicked into the 32% bracket by earning an extra ten bucks, only that $10 is taxed at 32%. It's not that your tax rate on everything goes to 32%. Also, if you're whining about how much your hard work is taxed when you think it's 50% but it's actually 14%, and you don't give a shit about the multibillionaire living off loaned income that's taxed at 0%, you've got your priorities all wrong, and your anger should be directed at the top 0.1%, not those around you.