"Although better than most other U.S. states, I don't have access to the services that Norwegians do. But my taxes are also very low here."

CO State taxes are (roughly) 5% which puts it right in the middle of US states (between 0% in places like Florida and 10-ish percent at the (non CA/NY) high end).

Then factor in (roughly) 35% federal + local taxes ... let's call it 40%, give or take. Let's just forget property taxes for the sake of this discussion.

Why should I think of 40% as a "low" taxation rate ?

Why shouldn't I expect a high level of government services in return for 40% taxation ?

(FWIW, I live in CA so you can add 5-8 more percentage points for my own tax burden ... same questions apply ...)

Unless you're $300k+, your tax burden is under 40%.

Even at $100k, you're around 31% total. That's for CA.

https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-paycheck-calculator#...

I speak of the highest tax brackets because my parent was implying that tax rates were not high enough - which is in reference to the people whose taxes should be raised.

I don't think the suggestion was that lower income brackets should bear that burden.

Therefore it only makes sense to discuss the highest brackets.

Or you can just look two states over at California which has the highest taxes in the country but is still largely dysfunctional. I think there's more to it than just perception.