re: In 2015, top 20% of income earners paid 83.9% of all federal income taxes

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So if we want all things to be fair, they should pay 67.38 percent of taxes, right?

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Perhaps, if that was the sole indicator of all things. It isn't - our economy and compensation methods are much more complex than that.

Those numbers do not include, for example, sales taxes. Everyone pays sales taxes to some extent - but a wealthy person who buys gifts for friends, decorates their home, etc will end up giving the government much more money than a wealthier person who sits on their money, living simple lives. Neither is "wrong" - but one of those individuals is giving the government a significantly larger amount of money through other means than a standard income tax.

If you own a lot of real estate, you'll pay a lot in property taxes. Keep a simple home, even with lots of money, and you won't.

We like to try and whittle these debates down to single bullet points because we are conditioned to see single targets to aim for. The truth is that we're not in a 1v1 dogfight; our tax code is the financial equivalent of trying to navigate a bomber over Berlin in 1943. It's insanely complex and there's a hundred things working both for and against you, and the whole time you're just hoping to drop off that package and get the hell out of dodge.