The thread goes after people's fundamental misunderstanding of marginal tax brackets. The quoted response about Kelsey Plum salary negotiations is clearly someone proposing a lowball offer thinking they're doing math when they're actually just bad at negotiating. This matters because tax policy gets gutted every election cycle because voters don't understand the system they're voting on. You can't have informed debate about tax rates when half the country thinks moving into a higher bracket tanks your entire income.