If you are earning enough money to get to the 37% tax bracket, you start to learn about other tax kickers like the High Earner Medicare enhancement. I paid a lot more in medicare last year than social security. At least social security phases out above some income level.

But Medicare follows you to the moon. 1.45% for basic medicare, at all incomes. Another 0.9% for incomes above $200k. That’s 2.35% on top of the 37% tax bracket. So 39.35% total. Close enough to 40%. And when the majority of your earnings are at that high level, effectively every dollar you want to spend was taxed at that level. California incomes get another 13% of taxes on high earners too.

Essentially, when I want to buy a $50k car, it costs me $100k in salary. When I have to pay $500 per year to register and drive that car, it costs me $1000 per year in salary. When I pay a $7 bridge fare, it’s $14 in salary. When I buy a $2 coke, it’s $4 in salary. When I take my wife out to a nice $100 dinner, it’s $200 in salary.

That’s my “privilege.” All the while, I’m told over and over that I’m not paying my “fair share.”