It blows my mind that someone that makes more money than me, pays less taxes than me. Why? Well, I know why, but why is it like this? I don't care if my neighbor has more money than me, I care if the rules are the same.
We read that the wealthy are taxed at a lower tax bracket because most of their income doesn't come from a paycheck, but from investments which are taxed at a lower rate. I can never compete, because I do not have investments that would generate a return similar to my current salary. Unfair rules in my opinion.
You can start investing as little as $1000, and grow form that, maybe you can reach some relevant invested amount, or maybe you can reach a sensible amount and then pass that to your children for them to continue.
Also you can lose all, because investing is not easy.
I worded my original comment very ambiguously. I was not trying to claim that the rich pay less taxes than the poor. They obviously don't.
What I meant was: One way for rich people to get more at other peoples expense, that does not require what would legally considered stealing from you, is to have to pay less taxes than they previously had (by using legal ways to do it, or by being the beneficiary of changing laws).
The point is, there is a lot of way's for the rich to benefit at your expense, and hacking your bank account might just be the least practical.
It is extremely unlikely that you are paying more in taxes than any of the super rich. You are complaining about how the tax code treats wages vs investment/passive income.
The reality is (as of 2016) the top 1% pay 37% of the total income tax bill. The top 5% (income>198K) pay 58%. The top 10% 69.5%.
On the other hand, the bottom 90% pay 30% of the tax bill, the bottom 50% only 3%.
Which seems to make sense since the top 1% average over 39 times more income than the bottom 90 percent[1] and hold about 38% of all privately held wealth in the US[2].
We read that the wealthy are taxed at a lower tax bracket because most of their income doesn't come from a paycheck, but from investments which are taxed at a lower rate. I can never compete, because I do not have investments that would generate a return similar to my current salary. Unfair rules in my opinion.