Because we need the people who earn 20k We need people to clean toilets as a society. Why **** on them? Why insult them? Why is it too much to ask that their lives don't have to be as crappy after work?
Who's ******** on them? You're the one that seems to have a low opinion of them, treating them like they NEED a handout. They seem to be content to do those jobs for that amount of pay. If they weren't, they would find ways to improve their situation. So either they literally CAN'T get a better job (which shouldn't be a problem if the economy weren't ******), or they DON'T WANT TO work any harder.
You still haven't explained why someone who makes more money but spends the same amount on subsistence as the low-wage worker should be penalized by being forced to pay more in taxes. The only explanation is that you want to redistribute wealth. The problem is that that plan doesn't redistribute wealth from the top down with our current income tax program, because the wealthiest people have ways to avoid reporting income (or have no income aside from interest income, or realized gains from investments).
A person with millions of dollars in the bank (let's say from an inheritance), a home and cars that are paid for, and no other debts or responsibilities COULD conceivably live a modest lifestyle on $20,000 per year in interest income, no different than your toilet-scrubber making $20,000. Both are spending 100% of their $20,000 income. Do you think that the person with the inheritance money should pay more just because he has more?
Now, do you realistically think the millionaire is actually going to live that lifestyle? That's where you're being short-sighted - someone making $20,000 is probably spending all of it on necessities. But someone making $40,000 is probably spending close to 100% of their income as well. And I would wager that a lot of people making $100,000 are spending close to 100% of their income as well (some are clearly living beyond their means and would actually be paying taxes on money they don't even HAVE). Do they each have different lifestyles? Absolutely. But if you figure a 10% sales tax, that means the toilet scrubber is paying $2,000 in taxes, the second guy is paying $4,000 and the third guy is paying $10,000. Is it possible the third guy will only spend $50,000? Sure, but he's still paying more than the other two, plus unless he's stuffing the other half of his money in a mattress, it's somewhere in the economy - either being loaned out by his bank or in the form of investments in business that are creating jobs. You may argue that it's subjective whether scrubbing toilets is harder work than sitting at a desk, but it's pretty objective who is paying more in taxes and whose money is harder at work in the economy.
