The more you make, the more they take
I remember doing my first tax return when I was 16 and could not make sense of it. You make this amount, deduct a random number in the tax form then look up tax in chart in back of tax guide, and this is the tax you owe or have a refund coming back. This was the EZ form. The state had a different tax rate. Now add other deductions, home mortgage, stock income, business expenses etc.
I learned early on if you got 1 hour of overtime the gov’t took 42% calling it unearned income and taxed you at a higher rate.
Look at the tax rates for different amount of income. You are penalized if you do well. Meanwhile the politicians literally use insider stock trading to make millions that would put you in prison.