Why should I, who work harder than others, pay more income tax than them?

To put it bluntly, you can AFFORD to pay a higher percentage of your income than someone who earns less. You seem to think that everyone has the same earning potential. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Not everyone has the same mental or physical abilities. Why should someone of lesser ability be penalized? If everyone had to pay the same amount of tax, the tax bill for every person in the country would be around $10,000 per year. That's well beyond the income of more than half of the country so lots of luck collecting it. If everyone paid the same rate, the poor and middle class would be crucified while the wealthiest 10% or so would get a sweet tax break. A flat rate income tax with no exemptions, deductions or credits would have to be assessed at about 25% to raise the same revenue as the current graduated tax. A single mother with 2 kids and a crap $8.50 an hour job would lose around $8,000 in buying power with a 25% tax rate. She and her kids would be on the streets in a matter of weeks. A family of four getting by OK on $40k per year would lose over $10,000 in buying power with a 25% tax rate. They would be scraping by near the poverty level. Heck, unless your income is on the sunny side of around $200,000 per year, YOU would probably see your tax bill rise with a 25% tax rate! Run the numbers on last year's return and more than likely you'll see that your NET tax rate is well below 25%. I make around $75k and am single and my net Federal income tax rate is less than 18%.

We will only have true equality and truly responsive government when costs of government are borne equally per capita. Until we have equal per capita taxes, there will be greed, graft, and leeches trying to live off others. As long as people are not contributing equally to govt expenses, we will have our supposed "public servants" in fact lining their pockets and approving porkbarrel spending, bridges to nowhere, earmarks, etc. If we get an equal per capita tax, people will not want their money being spent unnecessarily. As long as some people think the "other guy" pays, they want a piece of the action -- that's sheer greed and personal irresponsibility. If we had equal per capita taxes right now, people would be screaming that BO has already spent nearly $9000 per person so far this year. If you have a family of 4, your tax bill to date is just about $36,000, and will run close to $50,000 by the end of the year.

HONESTLY, you don't have to. What if you could turn it around and get taxed less than the people who don't earn as much? In fact the wealthy do it every day. I'm guessing that your in the 50k-100k area. (it could be higher! :) ) As a high earning employee the government is just taking money from you left and right. Here's some tips on lowering your tax bill to levels underneath those other workers. 1. Become business minded. You need to start a business. You can loan money to your start-up. You can write off loses for 2 years. You can buy equipment and assets, and set up tax advantages around this business as opposed to your job. Take 10-20k and run a business. Consider Real Estate right now. Or something your really good at. 2. Max out your 401k and get another IRA going. This money won't be taxed until later in life, and right now, you could use the break. Try socking away 20%. It'll lower your income tax. 3. What state do you live in? Find out what your being taxed on. (property, state, sales tax?) It matters where they're found. If you studied a bit more, and worked a bit harder this, you would know that you don't have to be in the situation your in. You should consider setting up that business, and hiring some pros, - a tax adviser, who can find loopholes, and a financial adviser. It's way worth the money. The most money you will ever make in your life is the money you avoid in taxes. Stock market gains = 10 % average. Taxes avoided = 10-50%.

I will just say that not everyone has been as lucky as you. People come in all packages and to think they are a bum because they don't have a college debt is silly. You should have taken manners in college maybe you would know the difference between a salad fork and dinner fork. Read that outdated thing called The U.S. Constitution and learn what taxes are really suppose to be (only if you can).