It is extremely unlikely that you are paying more in taxes than any of the super rich. You are complaining about how the tax code treats wages vs investment/passive income.
The reality is (as of 2016) the top 1% pay 37% of the total income tax bill. The top 5% (income>198K) pay 58%. The top 10% 69.5%.
On the other hand, the bottom 90% pay 30% of the tax bill, the bottom 50% only 3%.
Is it true that the super-rich pay higher tax rates? My understanding is most of them have great accountants, and the salaries they pay themselves are generally very low. They use loopholes (intentional or unintentional by the government) to avoid the high income tax rates. Which is why I find the whole fantasy around raising income tax rates to tax the rich to be a smokescreen, and not very well researched. It'd hardly affect the super-rich. The top 1% will mostly be salaried people who can't use the loopholes.
At least 'the rich guys' give themselves super high tax rates.
Edit:
For those who won't read the whole comment thread, the US has one of the highest top income tax rates in the OECD, one of the highest (or the highest?) corp tax rates in OECD, and arguably the lowest tax burden on poor/middle class in OECD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates
This idea that the rich don't pay taxes is somewhat misleading. Yes, certain very very rich people have accountants and tax shelters, but this is not the norm. IIRC, the (income) tax burden is about 40%, this by the top 1%.
So a /few/ rich people /seem/ to not pay any taxes.
While most of what you said is spot on, people often misunderstand what constitutes the super rich group with big tax breaks. It's way less than one percent, because it's the big investment money that's getting out of so much taxation. People who earn high salaries are actually paying quite substantial taxes.
For some perspective, "the 1%" starts at about $350k annual salary (think middle-of-the-pack surgeon.) At that level, you're paying a lot of taxes.
There's an excellent recent Econtalk on taxation in the US.
There is a difference between wealth and income. The top income earners pay a majority of the income taxes. The lower income earners pay a much smaller part of the taxes.
A bunch of the super rich deal in wealth rather than income. Remember reading about tech execs with $1 annual paychecks? They earn their money differently and pay taxes differently.
I wish there was more online showing this in a simple form.
If you want to count the entire world for wealth then you need to count the entire world for taxes too. I strongly doubt that the super rich are paying the vast majority of taxes worldwide.
The rate is definitely lower for poorer people, but nearly as much as the standard punditry, focusing only in federal income tax, would have you believe.
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