Some of these reported salaries would come close to that, if you include social security and medicare:

For a $500k income in CA

    29.59% Federal Income Tax
  + 10.48% CA Income Tax
  +  1.59% Social Security
  +  1.99% Medicate
  ----------------------------
  = 43.65% total tax rate.

(Source: https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-paycheck-calculator)

The California tax rate is off - you get taxed certain percentages up to a certain amount (progressive tax). The effective tax rate for $500k in California should be about 9.44% pre-deductions (should be effectively lower than this).

Should be roughly 42% pre-deductions/writeoffs.

...But in truth, if you're making around the $500k ballpark, you're doing pretty well financially.

People not understanding marginal tax need to get educated and not spread misinformation like claiming you pay nearly 45% taxes. You pay that on the top half of your income.

Also yes; just pay the tax, and then some. It helps everyone. If the country is sane in terms of politics of course, and doesn't have the military as its biggest expense. That makes it clear they're more concerned with international affairs than their own people.

I mean... the parent post is right, the site I linked seems to be calculating CA state tax incorrectly.

But: 42% is the effective tax rate (not marginal, average). And this is pretty close to 45%. For a hypothetical person making $500k or more as regular income in CA (as many of the posted salaries above would be), they would indeed pay about $210k in taxes plus Medicare plus Social Security.

You forgot sales taxes, additional health insurance fees, and 401k contributions.

40-45% is not extremely high for California for someone unmarried with a mid-6-figures income.

For lower income levels than that, or if you're married, or live in a state with lower state taxes, the numbers look much better.