Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos rants on CNBC about how Queens nurses pay too much in taxes, compared to billionaires like him, who he says should be taxed more. But isn’t rooting for the progressive income tax exactly how the middle class got heavy taxation burdens misapplied to them in the first place? And don’t fat cats like him avoid being on a payroll, as they live off their assets and corporate revenue, so they aren’t even subject to income taxes? Doesn’t the IRS legalized theft system show it’s wrong to take wealth away from productive people of any class?:
“When you don’t know how to solve a problem, create a villain, blame them, but it won’t solve the problem,” Bezos said, referring to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax proposal. The idea would generate between $340 to $510 million in annual revenue, according to City Comptroller Mark Levine.
Bezos also floated the idea of low-income earners paying nothing in individual income tax, which is already the case for about 40 percent of American households (many of which are low-income), according to a 2025 report from the Tax Policy Center.
The U.S. tax system is highly progressive. The top 10 percent of earners—households earning more than $228,000—take home 45.7 percent of all income but pay 61.3 percent of all federal taxes, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Treasury. In contrast, the bottom 50 percent of earners collectively pay very little, with the lowest income groups actually receiving more in credits than they pay in taxes.
When progressive politicians talk about an unfair tax system, they’re ostensibly referencing the difference between one’s effective and statutory tax rates. With exemptions, deductions, and credits unequally distributed—even amongst taxpayers with similar incomes—tax liability often boils down to which provision a filer qualifies for.
Differing tax rates for capital gains, business profits, mortgage interest, and family size mean that those at either end of the statutory rate can end up with a higher effective tax rate than others in their tax bracket. Taxes such as the estate tax, gift tax, and payroll and corporate taxes are also paid almost entirely by the wealthy, who are more likely to have non-wage income. At the same time, policies like the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit favor low- and middle-income families.
Bezos is right when he says higher taxes on the rich won’t solve the affordability crisis; more revenue for the government doesn’t mean wiser spending… More