There is a bumper sticker that reads “Work Harder. Millions on welfare are depending on you”. This is working-class angst. Many people believe they are paying all the taxes for services that go to the less fortunate. The reality is that the taxes that most of us pay are not enough to offset the government services that each of us utilizes such as the roads that we all drive on, the defense that protects all of us, the first responders that are on call to help us, and the healthcare and other benefits that we use as we age. The truth is: the ultra-wealthy pay most of these taxes. Most likely, the services you use or benefit from are being paid for by people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. So thanks for all the SSI money Jeff and Elon! In any event, I vow to pay back the government for all the SSI money I’ve used in it’s entirety with interest when this thing is over.

Here’s a breakdown of who pays what:
1.) The Top 1% pay 40% of all federal income taxes.
2.) The Top 10% pay 70% of all federal income taxes.
3.) The top 50% pay 97% of all the federal income taxes.

The individual tax burden that each of us owes is about $40,600 a year when you split the $6.4 trillion of government tax revenue among the working population. The vast majority of working-class Americans do not pay anywhere near this $40,600 in taxes. So most Americans do not earn enough to carry the pure dollar cost of the government services they utilize, meaning those services are subsidized by the highest brackets.