• anon6789@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’ll guess if you’re non-US, you’re also getting things for your taxes such as healthcare and other services. For us, it’s essentially a la carte pricing, so for many of these people in the lower tax brackets, healthcare is much more than taxes.

    The bottom 50% of earners pay about $700/yr in federal tax. State and local taxes, property tax, school tax, and sales tax on top of that. “Average” income tax is $15,000, only due to wealth disparity. The bottom 50% pay less than 2.5% of all income tax.

    Average healthcare cost is around $14,000/yr, so even for solidly middle-class people, healthcare costs are the same or higher than paid taxes, so that is probably much closer to, if not more than you may be paying.

    Paying tax is a civic responsibility. The real pain comes from not feeling like you get what you pay for. I’ve no issue with coughing up some cash for safe roads and food inspectors, but when we have bridges collapsing and healthcare isn’t considered a human right, it makes for some discontentment.