If I earn $500k a year because I went to college and put in far more effort than someone who makes $50k a year, why should I pay multiples more in taxes than them?
Because you are forgetting of the net benefit of taxes that have been paid for decades before you were born, which improved everyone’s standing to allow for:
The training of your teachers to allow you to get your education.
The city infrastructure that allowed you easy access to school, and later to your profession.
The social stability for your business to thrive.
The quality of life for your business’s customers, allowing them to afford to be customers, allowing the business to afford your $500k a year.
You do not live in a vacuum. If all the people who make $50k a year disappeared it would significantly negatively impact your life. “A rising tide raises all ships”, and a society on which everyone can thrive benefits everyone in that society. You can afford to pay a higher % and still thrive, in order to ease the burden on someone who is struggling.
You’re argument of “I make more money than I need, I should keep it and let other people starve” isn’t very compelling.
Because you are forgetting of the net benefit of taxes that have been paid for decades before you were born, which improved everyone’s standing to allow for:
The training of your teachers to allow you to get your education.
The city infrastructure that allowed you easy access to school, and later to your profession.
The social stability for your business to thrive.
The quality of life for your business’s customers, allowing them to afford to be customers, allowing the business to afford your $500k a year.
You do not live in a vacuum. If all the people who make $50k a year disappeared it would significantly negatively impact your life. “A rising tide raises all ships”, and a society on which everyone can thrive benefits everyone in that society. You can afford to pay a higher % and still thrive, in order to ease the burden on someone who is struggling.
You’re argument of “I make more money than I need, I should keep it and let other people starve” isn’t very compelling.