system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why doesn't every American citizen pay the same percentage of income in taxtes?

Suppose the government taxed every citizen 20% of their income. Why wouldn't that work?
gpt
Because it wouldn't actually be fairer.

20% of your income when you make 20k is a big deal. Sure, it's "only" 4k, but you can feed a person for months on that much. In contrast, 20% of your income when you make 500k isn't a big deal at all; it may cost you 100k, but 400k is still enough money to buy basically anything you'd want.

So if you accept that poor people should be taxed less (which you must, if you think that percentage of income is a reasonable thing to tax), there's no reason to have everyone pay the *same* percentage.