[wppick]

Also upwards accumulation of wealth can sometimes mean less tax revenue. Middle class salary workers pay a lot of tax, so with more upwards accumulation of wealth (maybe accelerating due to AI) then what will happen to tax revenue? People getting laid off don't pay tax, and shifting that money to corporate, tax havens, and cap gains types of taxes will probably end up lower overall

[SoftTalker]

> Middle class salary workers pay a lot of tax

No they don't. If we're talking about federal income tax, the vast majority of is paid by the wealthy.

[phil21]

You are correct. But you are commenting in a place where mid six figure engineers consider themselves middle class and not wealthy.

Yes, the top 20% pay the vast majority of taxes and are taxed at the highest rate until you get into the ownership classes where income goes down and capital gains goes up. Plus that’s when all the tax deferral strategies come into play.

And yes, by all reasonable definitions if you are in the top 20% either income or wealth you are categorically wealthy.

[wppick]

All tax. Income tax, payroll tax, consumption tax