I rarely see people with a position like yours demonstrate their commitment to fierce independence by moving out to the wilderness and surviving off the land completely on their own. Why is that?
I think it's because you take for granted all of the things society provides for you and generally attribute all of your successes to your own efforts. That is a mindset which can lead only to resentment and isolation, but maybe that's what you want?
For an extreme example a homeless drunk spending most of their income on alcohol is paying a 40% tax for the privilege. Benefits are of course a separate issue, but few want to calculate benefits from free roads, Medicare, police, or Social Security as government welfare.
At the other end Bill Gates actual lifetime income is vastly higher than his taxable income due to the charitable tax deduction and capitals gains being deferred until sale.
2) Progressive tax is not arbitrary. As income increases, a higher % of spending is discretionary. Nearly all of the working class’ income goes to basic necessities. That is part of the rationale.
That's literally my right in the Constitution through quite a few amendments.
It is only quite recently in history that people (who aren't hermits going into the wilderness) have been making the "but I want to be left alone" argument. It is an unfortunate result of the concentration of property and means of production in recent centuries and the ideology it engendered and disseminated.