if you lived in CA and made $250k/yr, this is how it would break down today:
| salary | $250k |
| fed tax | 35% |
| state tax | 10% |
| medicare + matching | 3% |
| ss + matching | 12% on first $100k |
60% on first $100k .. $60k tax due and 48% on the remaining $150k... or $72k.
| total tax | ~$132k |
| net (take home) | ~$118k |
assuming you have a mortgage, a mortgage of $500k isn't out of the question in CA. assuming 6% over 30 years, you're paying $3,000/month.
| mortgage | $3k | |
| property taxes | $1k | |
| home insurance | $1k | |
| electric | $250 | |
| car payment | $400 | |
| car insurance | $100 | |
| cable tv + internet | $100 | |
| water + sewage | $50 | |
| phone | $100 | |
| food | $500 | |
| -- | ||
| total household monthly expenses | $6.5k |
total expenses without leaving the house: ~$78k / year
this would leave about $40k / year, or ~$3300/month for spending.
this would not get your rich
raising the max fed rate from 35% to 40% would raise the total taxes due from $132k to $144.5k/yr. this would leave $27.5k / year, or $2300/month for spending
this would take $1,000 every month away from consumer spending and adding it directly to the wallets of washington fat cats.
you never see those asshats eating oodles of noodles and driving clunkers.
Be sure to adjust for inflation (the stealth tax). For 2008, it would have been an extra 3.5-4% haircut.