You’ll need a different congress for that

Maybe, just maybe, we will get one.

The top 10% (many people in HN are in this group, it’s $130k+) already pay 70-80% of all income taxes.

How much higher do you think that number should be?

"The top 10% pay 70% of income taxes" sounds scary until you remember they also control 75% of the wealth in the country.

91% for millionaires, like the good ol' days.

The percentage of all taxes paid by the top 10% hasn’t really changed over the past century.

Despite have marginal rates >70%, very few people ever paid them.

True for the top 10%. Put in the top 1% (~$500k), though, on the effective tax rate chart at https://qz.com/74271/income-tax-rates-since-1913/ and you'll see it has dropped significantly for that population (by about half) since about 1980.

False. https://mises.org/library/good-ol-days-when-tax-rates-were-9...

If we're throwing clearly partisan sources around:

Sort-of. http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/08/07/the_history_o...

For a less partisan source, with a neat "pick your income" chart that illustrates the flaws in the Mises argument for sky-high incomes (try anything over ~$500k/year), https://qz.com/74271/income-tax-rates-since-1913/

Speak for yourself. I am not overpaid. I get paid exactly what the market for my skills is willing to pay.

$15 per hour for a teenager to sweep floors — now that’s being overpaid.

If you think you are undertaxed, there is a solution: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/gift/gift.htm

In 2018, just over $700,000 has been donated. So clearly all of us “overpaid” people don’t really care.

I pay taxes for public transit I don’t use, public schools my kids don’t attend, healthcare I don’t consume, wars I didn’t ask for, bridges in places I’ll never go. I subsidize food for people I’ll never meet, housing, universal service fees; I pay sales taxes on everything, excise taxes created to pay for a war almost 100 years before I was born, subsidies to farmers, oil, green energy — we pay for all of this stuff. I am on with paying taxes, but dammit, I pay enough already. Over half of everything I earn goes to pay for government. I even had to pay US taxes when I didn’t even live in the US.

I understand taxes are necessary; but it’s not fair that I work 1 day for the government for every 1 day I work for myself. It doesn’t matter how much I get paid, what matters is that half of everything I do goes to taxes.

I worked very hard to get to where I am — that ought not result in being punished for it.

I consume just as much “government” as the guy standing next to me; why should I have to pay more than him?

I am paid what the market allows also. I pay tons and tons of taxes too! But it's not better for society if people like me get together and take over the government via regulatory capture and get lower taxes just for us (like paying all the senators to do things we like via campaign contributions and. hiring them when they retire). How much taxes do you think you should pay? Less than everyone else? What if your kids or your nephews say, aren't quite as fortunate as you are, they are sweeping the floor somewhere, and they get sick or in a car accident? Should they just die, or depend on the kindness of strangers or a rich aunt? I think we should take care of the poor, the kids who weren't lucky enough to be born to someone who was rich or a programmer (I was lucky and born to two college graduates, and one was even a programmer :-)).