Originally Posted by Bostonian
The United States has by far the most progressive income, payroll, wealth and property taxes of any developed country. Scandinavian social democracies like Denmark, Sweden and Norway have quite regressive direct taxes, as do the Netherlands and Switzerland

Perhaps, but in those countries, wealthy people actually have to pay the tax. That's not the case here, as you know very well.

Originally Posted by Forbes Magazine
The 400 highest-earning taxpayers in the U.S. reported a record $105 billion in total adjusted gross income in 2006, but they paid just $18 billion in tax, new Internal Revenue Service figures show. That works out to an average federal income tax bite of 17%–the lowest rate paid by the richest 400 during the 15-year period covered by the IRS statistics.

All that tax money goes to paying for schools and keeping university fees very low (among other things).