> on the 'taxes' segment: most people won't owe $32k in taxes unless they're actually earning a high amount anyway, so it's sort of self-fulfilling - if you inc

> on the 'taxes' segment: most people won't owe $32k in taxes unless they're actually earning a high amount anyway, so it's sort of self-fulfilling - if you include $32k in taxes, then yes, you'll need to earn far more than that to pay those taxes. For the article they want to present a gross income figure, i.e. what salary do you need to afford the American Dream. The figure for taxes is simply the income tax due on a salary high enough to have an after-tax (net) income equal to the other expenditures. There's nothing funny or self-fulfilling about it.