I’m aware, but I don’t see how that has a relevance to discussion Netflix’s federal income tax liability. My point was people in these comments are throwing out personal tax liability figures for comparison including various things such as state taxes, social security, Medicare, which makes things not very comparable.

Because people are people and not math proof generation engines.

Someone worked hard, achieved an intermediate goal that they hoped was going to move them one rung up the economic ladder only to find out that taxes took a much larger bite than they’d hoped or previously considered. So, they’re naturally discouraged to read about some big company somewhere paying a much lower overall rate while comparing it to their own.

Perhaps the real question is why the authors of these articles don’t put everything into terms more directly relatable to the people reading the article? That’s because doing so makes for less outrage-sharing of the article.

Yep, total tax rate.