You're taxed at that rate because that's what the government thinks is optimal for the economy. It's not punitive and it's got nothing to do with what anyone "d

You're taxed at that rate because that's what the government thinks is optimal for the economy. It's not punitive and it's got nothing to do with what anyone "deserves" or how much they use. The point of social security is to mitigate risk, which increases fluidity in the job market. Without that, you have scores of potential successful business owners working in factories, contributing fuck all to the economy. There's some real positives to progressive taxation too. It acts as a negative tax on risk, incentivising veteran devs to take on more low paying research positions and startups instead of lucrative consulting and big business gigs. There's a reason almost every highly successful country has a similar tax system. Progressive taxation up to ~50% and not much higher. Because despite what people on the far-left or far-right keep crapping on about, fucking with either free markets or welfare is a recipe for disaster, you need a good balance of both to have a healthy economy.