40% tax? Sounds about right. So long as there are good social services. That's about the taxation level in the Nordic countries, so with that I expect universal health care, 1 year combined parental leave per child, free college tuition to state colleges, state coverage of old age homes, free college, 30 days of holiday, good roads, clean water, etc.

> Someone who studied hard (for example), got into student debt, etc

If tuition is free, there's no need to go into massive student debt. Cuba, with the Latin American School of Medicine, pursues medical diplomacy by providing free medical education to international student, including US citizens. It cost Cuba about $15K/year/student or about $90K total. Some of the US citizens do this so they can return home and worked at a free clinic or volunteer in communities that are underserved by those who go into $100Ks of debt. (See http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/cuba-offers-poor-med-stu... ).

Those medical students are making a statement as well - that $250k/y isn't what drives them to be a medical doctor. (I bring this up to highlight that a lot of people make statements, not just those with high incomes.)

> Billionaires should get taxed %50

Note that "billionaire" refers to wealth, not income. Are you proposing a global wealth tax of 50% of the richest people? Picketty's proposal is only 5 or 10% for billionaires.

FWIW, the highest income tax bracket in the US used to be ~90%.

> If you make 1 million dollars a year you'll never become a millionaire

If you make $1M/year with 50% income taxation and no wealth taxation then you have 500K. If your lifestyle costs $250K/year than you bank $250K/year. It will take 4 years to become a millionaire.

If there is a 50% income tax and 2% wealth tax on $1M/year income and no savings (and the same spend) then you'll have $250K in savings for the first year, $490K the second, $720K the third, $940K the fourth, and by the fifth year you'll have over a million in savings.

I notice that people tend to be much more okay with unfairness as long as it doesn't affect them.

Consider that to 99% of the humans having $500k does mean "living like a king", and I bet that Joe who works at the gas station will think "you'll be fine with half a mil, trust me" when he thinks about taking half of your salary.

If you make $1M you are a rich person, if you make $100k you are a rich person, if you make $40k you are still in the top 0.57% of the richest people in the world (http://www.globalrichlist.com).

People who justify taxing people richer than they are seem to forget that there's 6.7 billion people thinking the same way and using the same logic to justify taking their stuff.