Sources:
https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
https://www.thebalancemoney.com/current-u-s-federal-government-tax-revenue-3305762
Tax brackets (federal). I used ~95,000$ to calculate the amount in the title.
So the government earned under $5T in taxes in 2020. The richest 1% alone earned $50T. If they were taxed even 12% (among the lowest brackets), federal taxes would double. Their true tax rate in 2020 was under 5% on average.
Many of the top 1% pay zero taxes. That's right, none. Via loopholes of questionable legality, they don't pay a cent. And nobody forces them to pay. The IRS prefers to go after poor people.
If the rich paid as much in income taxes as a high earner (37% for ~500,000$+) then the USAs federal taxes would multiply by 4-5x as much.
This difference would have been enough to pay ALL Americans an extra 40,000$ for that year to stay at home during the pandemic. And this is EXTRA federal taxes alone, with plenty left over for other measures and infrastructure projects, and covering all COVID-19 costs.
Tax the rich already. People don't realize just how much they're getting fucked over. Seriously, why should poorer people pay higher tax rates than the richest people on the planet?
Never forget that there is more than enough wealth to go around, and the rich are sitting on it. This is a failing of policy, and we shouldn't just sit around and accept it. The US government is a joke, and lobbying is a poison that causes corruption on a scale never seen in the past. Just because it's legal doesn't make it right. Inequality is the worst it's ever been. The USA deserves better.