>You're only 1/2 way away from slave labor at that point.
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.
His point is that the same things apply to 30% tax: you are only 2/3 away from being a slave, if you don't pay your 30% your freedom is taken away.
There isn't a rational difference between 30 and 50, the only difference is "I feel that it is too much", right?
There is absolutely a rational difference between 30 and 50%.
The numbers are clearly different, but not in the "one is slavery and the other is not" kind of way right?
We as a society went to war with companies over how much time they can require of us. Nowadays companies can only require us to work roughly 23% of the hours in a week.
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, you're just 1/2 away from the point where your return on investment is not justified. And that's fine; there's a lot of perfectly valid reasons a situations where working is not worth it.
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.