You would have to be making $5,000,000 a year before you are paying 50% in California (see https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-paycheck-calculator#...).

Sure, but that doesn't change the point of my comment which is that the income tax rates in some US states will actually exceed Australia's in higher earners.

Ya, if that is your point. Australian taxes ramp up faster, so low earners will pay more tax in Australia than in California. E.g. Australia making $50K USD/year will pay 17% in taxes (according to https://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Host/?anchor=ST..., don't forget to convert to AUD first), while a Californian will only pay 15%.

(If you ignore things like cost of healthcare and college.)

I thought healthcare was funded by a payroll tax in Australia. Are you claiming that they are funding it via income tax instead?

There is also an extra tax to pay for college that graduates (4 percent) pay if they make more than $39k (AUD I think, not sure what the basis that they have to pay is, however).

Both healthcare and college seem to be funded separately from income taxes.

I'm responding to "low earners will pay more tax in Australia than in California".

We were talking about income tax (apples), and you begin to talk about payroll taxes and something funded via an extra tax on college graduates (oranges).

It might be that overall the poor get a better deal in Australia. But surely it's not because of the income taxes (slightly higher than CA for low earners) or the consumption taxes (much much higher than CA). Maybe they get a better deal on health insurance and payroll taxes, plus the idea of paying for college via successful graduates is one that America should definitely consider adopting.