Imagine a government with eleven citizens, ten of which earn a thousand dollars a year and pay 50% income tax on each dollar, while the eleventh earns one milli

Imagine a government with eleven citizens, ten of which earn a thousand dollars a year and pay 50% income tax on each dollar, while the eleventh earns one million dollars a year and pays just 10% income tax on each dollar. If the government then spends every tax dollar on building a road, that road has been ~95% paid for by one citizen and ~5% paid for by the other ten. It’s quite possible in principle for the wealthiest people to pay a lower tax rate than poorer people, yet still contribute disproportionately to public funds. (In fact something like this dynamic is indeed happening in most Western countries, the top 1% usually account for more than one third of total tax dollars paid.)