It only seems absurd because you reveal the statistic in a way that evokes a specific emotion. By saying 50%, you focus not on what is left, but the part of the whole. I'll use my sister's friend as an example. He used to make $2 million per year. If I say that 50% of his income is taken up by the government, but I withhold the amount he makes, it seems that a ridiculous amount is being lost to government intervention. When I bring in the fact that he is still making $1 million after the (let's use the word tax to make things easier) tax, it seems that he still has a lot of money. The government could be taxing 99%, but a billionaire will still be filthy rich. The thing is that after a certain point, all of your earnings either go to savings, investment, or luxury consumption, and wealthy people do consume a lot of luxury goods. Savings is, for the most part, irrelevant in this argument because a person making $1 billion will still be able to keep a decent amount in savings. If you were to have taxes that are even close to those above for the lower and middle classes, they would be fighting to survive. There are now two problems that I must address now; let's start with number one. I don't deny that many rich people do work hard to get where they are, but the amount of money they are earning usually doesn't match the amount of work they do. A blue collar worker that puts in physical effort may barely be in the middle class, but a business owner who put in mental effort can skyrocket into the upper class. The business owner did work hard, no doubt, but does he continue to work just as hard every single day to make the millions he currently does? Does he still put in the same effort? A single mother working two jobs to feed the kids is putting in a ton of effort, but sadly, she isn't getting as far as a person who has the capabilities to go get a higher education and start her own business. The second problem I must address is that the 50% tax rate may be put into effect, but people find ways to evade paying. Do you really think that the upper class pays taxes without cutting corners?