Has anyone else ever noticed this trend that I see in my state?

[DFW]

46. Here in Germany, they raise everything all the time, AND raise fees for all services

The "top (not quite, but almost)" income tax rate of 42% kicks in at around €55,961 (about $61,000). This rate applies to income up to €265,327 (about $282,000), and everything over that is taxed at 45%*. On top of all that is always a 5% surtax, ostensibly to help rebuild East Germany, although after 30 years, there some serious grumbling about keeping it. There is always the usual argument about how much is given in return, but it applies to far from everyone. I'm in the top bracket here (not hard to achieve with a $61,000 threshhold), but I get no medical insurance, no pension, no nothing except quarterly bills. A friend of my wife's has mental health issues, and often relies on "little" gifts from my wife to help her be able to buy food at the end of the month when her welfare money runs out.

In addition to the income tax, there is that good old European form of government heroin, the value-added tax of 19% on everything. Talk about hitting the lower incomes hard, this is the golden icon. In some countries it is even 24%. It always goes up, never down. Germany, as many EU countries, is run to a large extent by professional politicians (Merkel is an exception--she actually learned how to do things). Double taxation is unconstitutional here (little issue about supplemental taxes on Jews in the 1930s that the post-war people wanted to avoid repeating, which is why a wealth tax here is prohibited), and yet they tax the gasoline tax at the pump with VAT, so you pay tax on the tax.

Most German politicians are so far removed from real life, it's hard to grasp that they are the ones who dream up the rules here. My wife, a solid Social Democrat/Greens voter, wants to propose a law that says that anyone who wants to be a member of parliament must first spend a year working out there in the real world, earning their own living among other people doing the same. THEN they can start enacting laws--when they can imagine from first-hand experience how those laws will impact people. Of course, such a proposal would get nowhere in any European parliament. The lifelong professional politicians who get their official cars, drivers, perks and pensions paid by taxpayers aren't interested in finding out what it means to BE a taxpayer.

* https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ACYBGNTOQMHXyc5hGjXoJstFUZ1bQtnRoQ%3A1575138655143&ei=X7XiXd-kCMTJwQLxy744&q=spitzensteuersatz+2019&oq=spitzensteuersatz&gs_l=psy-ab.1.3.0i71l8.0.0..18535...0.2..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz.Olz6vL2-7Gs