>> I am so sick of the government taking almost half of everything I earn for stupid programs like this.
Does your almost half include sales tax? FWIW in NZ the highest tax rate is 33% on personal income over $70K, or 3% on dividends after imputation of company tax. Plus sales tax of 15% on personal expenditure.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1