If you first substract the amount needed just to get by from the income, then you'll find that the people with income below 50k$ actually pay tax off money they

If you first substract the amount needed just to get by from the income, then you'll find that the people with income below 50k$ actually pay tax off money they need, while people with high-income pay tax off discretionary money. You can arrive at different conclusion when you start from different data. Starying from raw income and ignboring everything else serves a simple political purpose: to paint low-income people as priviledged and high-income as harassed. Any discourse which yield outlook that any common-sense person would see doesn't match who is downtrodden and who is priviledged should be taken with a grain a salt and huge scrutiny.