Not sure if this was the GPs point, but the US taxes wages (i.e., work) in addition to income, so every dollar spent on work gets more taken out of it than ever

Not sure if this was the GPs point, but the US taxes wages (i.e., work) in addition to income, so every dollar spent on work gets more taken out of it than every other dollar. Not entering the part-time, entrepreneurial workforce due to self-employment taxes is absolutely a thing because the bite taken out is quite large. Wage taxes absolutely need to go, but they are tied to Social Security / Medicare, so the elite in both parties are unwilling to touch them, albeit for different reasons.