Politics: Do the rich pay "enough" taxes?

That is a question people often ask with the assumption the answer is, NO!

But the question does require two assumptions:
What is the definition of rich?
What is enough?

Thus, leaving aside "who is rich" and "what is enough" questions, what can we say about this taxing question?

This item suggests that the bulk (97.3%) of the income taxes are paid by those in the top 50% of the population. Looking at the other part of the bar graph, 58.7% of all income taxes are paid by just 5% of the population.

Thus, with regards to income tax, the rich do pay a large share of the taxes.

However, as any average working person knows, we also pay Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes.

Turns out Medicare tax is essentially a FLAT TAX on income for all employers/employees of 1.45% for employer and 1.45% for employee. Thus, the Medicare tax falls on all people equally.

However, the Social Security tax is a FLAT TAX on income up to $106,800 with 6.2% on employers and 6.2% on employees. Thus, for folks earning $106,800 or less, we are all taxed the same. But if one earns more than $106,800, those extra dollars are not subject to the Social Security FLAT TAX, thus the effective rate for them falls as they earn more.

Of course, someone earning over $106,800 is taxed in the 25, 28, 33 or 35% tax bracket depending on total income compared to the 10 and 15% bracket for the less well heeled.

Then there are SALES taxes levied at the state/county/city levels which hits all people. And there are PROPERTY taxes which hits all people who own homes. There are GAS taxes at the pump that are paid by anyone who drives. There are alcohol and tobacco taxes for those who partake.

There are specialized taxes on dividends and capital gains which are at rates in some cases lower than income tax rates. However, dividends and capital gains are generated by the purchase of mutual funds and stocks and other investment vehicles usually with income that has been taxed once already.

As you can see there are many tax mechanisms that the population pays: no one escapes the TAXMAN as described in the Beatles song.

And it turns out that most taxes are of the FLAT tax variety (i.e. as a percentage the same for everyone) with the income tax as progressive (i.e. higher rates for higher income) and social security tax as regressive (i.e. lower rates for higher income) above $106,800

The really big question is how much government do we want to pay for?

Revenues need to match expense. But since they don't, there is DEBT. This DEBT is paid out of future tax revenues and is a "tax" on future generations.

A secondary question is what types of tax systems to use.

The more complicated the systems, the more likely there will be honest mistakes, legal tax avoiding actions and outright tax evasion.