"We live in NYC and according to our accountants, we pay a marginal fully loaded tax rate of 47.62%. That means we keep about half of the ordinary income the Gotham Gal and I generate." The second sentence glides over the key word in the first sentence, "marginal". AVC and GG pay much lower rates on the first income they earn during the year -- it is only the income that exceeds what most people will ever earn during a year that is taxed at the higher income rate. Conversely, the first income -- the income they have in common with ordinary people -- is subject to social security and unemployment tax -- but the extraordinary income that makes them very wealthy is not. They also probably pay much less of their income in sales tax and small fees that most Americans.
Finally, according to the IRS in several recent years 10% of the capital gains income in the entire country has gone to the richest 400 tax payers, whose average tax rate is not the 47% rate AVC cites, but 17%: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/who-benefits-fro...
Edit: here's total tax distribution by quintile: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2009/01/07/moving-fr... . Note that the 34.5% paid by the richest 20% drops sharply for the very richest.