I'll mention this not to disagree with your overall point, but because I've seen it be a source of confusion for some people. In the US federal income tax syste

I'll mention this not to disagree with your overall point, but because I've seen it be a source of confusion for some people. In the US federal income tax system, the marginal tax rate varies depending on the tax bracket each dollar of your income falls in. That is, someone making $200k would pay 10% on their first $9,950 of income, 12% on their next $30,575 of income, and so on. They'd only pay a rate above 30% for the last $35,075 of their income. You can plug in numbers and locations at https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes to get a sense of how this plays out.