The progressive tax system was not designed to hurt or punish the wealthy for acquiring large sums of money. There are numerous social welfare programs that must be funded and that occurs from taxation. The money collected from the wealthy gets redistributed to those through public schools, social security benefits, and hospitals. The middle class cannot be required to pay large tax liabilities, frankly, their earnings would not allow for the necessities in life if that were to occur. Although many middle class families would love to see a substantial increase in their income; many try to keep their income at a certain level in order to avoid moving into the next level tax bracket. The wealthy certainly do not try and decrease their earnings
