And when you factor in other taxes, you pay more than 50%, it's too much.
And if I choose not to pay those taxes, my freedom is taken away, so don't tell me the slave point is invalid.
No one getting taxed at an effective 50% tax rate in the United States is anywhere near a slave. The minimum wage McDonald's worker with a 15% tax rate is the slave.
There isn't a rational difference between 30 and 50, the only difference is "I feel that it is too much", right?
50% is 84 hours/week, we as a society have already deemed the difference between those to be significant enough to fight about.
The difference between 50% of your income and 30% of your income is significant.
No, I don't think I am rationalizing or being irrational.
Note: I don't make any claims to know what the right overall tax rate is - if you're asking me about 32% vs. 38% vs. 29% ... I am as lost as you, and those economists, are.
However I think that 1/2 is not an arbitrary point on that scale - I think there is a qualitative difference between more than one half and less than one half.
If I am assessed more than one half of what I earn, that's unfair in a way that I believe appeals to innate concepts of fairness that we all share, rather than "I just don't like that number".
But why? I mean, are you just rationalizing? "I think 50% taxes is a lot just because I do, therefore I think it's bad policy." Or is there a logical reason that 50% is "a bit silly" but, say, 30% (or whatever your number is) is fine?
This is something that Nobel prize-winning economists fight over -- exactly how high a tax rate is too high? -- so I kind of doubt we're going to resolve it here on HN. My point is that we all have feelings ("I don't like the color mauve", "50% taxes rubs me the wrong way"), but these have to be separate from motives for enacting policy.