The table shows the total Social Security payout a high-earning husband and his wife would get in net present dollars, assuming average life expectancies.

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At the margin, a tax on earning additional income will reduce the total income earned and will reduce the tax take to some extent.

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In sharp contrast, in that same year, the middle 20% of income earners, the true middle class, paid 2.7% of total federal individual income taxes on net, while earning 15% of before-tax income.

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The top 1% alone paid way over twice the share of total federal taxes as the entire middle 20%, while earning less of a share of income.

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An estimated 2.6m of South Africa's 39m blacks (about 80% of the total population) now earn at least 6, 000 rand a month, with many earning a lot more.

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