A marginal tax rate of 97.75% on the top tier does not mean that a person in that tier would pay 97.75% of their total earnings. It means that they would pay 97

A marginal tax rate of 97.75% on the top tier does not mean that a person in that tier would pay 97.75% of their total earnings. It means that they would pay 97.75% of their earnings on income above a certain threshold. For example, if the marginal tax rate on income above a billion dollars was 97.75%, and you earned 2 billion, you'd "only" get to keep 27.5 million dollars of the billion you earned after the first billion. I'm not saying that a 97.75% tax on any income tier is entirely reasonable, but I hope that if you had the choice between keeping 2.25% of a billion dollars vs. keeping 100% of ten thousand dollars, you'd make the right decision.