The States are doing so much better than the rest of the world economically that we should follow the American example, not vice versa.
Contrast this with the US at $60,235.73 and Germany at about $51,000.
I don't think too many people, at least in other developed countries, are looking at the United States and thinking "wow, I wish my country was more like the United States." Usually such comparisons are made to the Scandinavian countries.
What moral system informed these utopian ideas? Why does everyone have an obligation to subscribe to it?
If the rest of the world wants to hand arbitrary taxation power to some bureaucrats in pursuit of their moral ideal, let them have at it.
Here's a fun thought experiment - if Jeff Bezos (actually Andy Jassy nowadays, but that just proves my point further) suddenly vanished, how many orders would fail to be delivered tomorrow as a result? Literally none. Now suppose everybody else working at Amazon disappeared instead. What happens? The company ceases to meaningfully exist. So who really created that wealth?
Jeff Bezos (and I’m no fan) the hungry entrepreneur only went through the massive life disruption of starting a company because of the possibility that he might one day become Jeff Bezos the (m/b)illionaire.
Take that juicy end state away and suddenly you’ll have nobody willing to go through the decades of hell it takes to create these big companies.
Resulting in no jobs and no packages.
Nonsense, Jeff Bozos has never been through "hell", since he only started Amazon with the help of venture capital. It was more work than a normal job, yes, but was not torture nor even something he disliked doing.
Regarding ideals: they’re usually great to have personally, but not so great anymore if others have to pay for your grand visions.
Regarding Bezos and Amazon: of course they have to pay tax, everyone should. But my sense is that taxes are far higher than they need to be - there’s an entire class of unionized middle-class bureacrats and government suppliers that add uncertain value at best.
The effective tax rate for the highest earners right now is not all that different than it was from the 50's to the 90's.
The thing that's changed is actually the effective rate on the bottom 50% - those taxes have increased.