Holy smokes Brits !

[UnderseaLcpl]

A tax rate of 50% how in the hell can your economy endure such a rate?

It's probably a lot higher than that, once you factor in all the sneaky taxes. A lot of people in the U.S. pay over 50% taxes. They just don't know it because they are invisible.

One that almost no one ever thinks about is indirect taxation. Pretty much everything you buy has already been taxed dozens of times. Of course, the companies that make those products don't simply eat the tax loss, they pass it on to you whenever they can.
Another one is the insidious inflation tax. Inflating the currency in order to devalue public debt is a time-honored tradition of governments. You get to foot the bill because now your money is worth less, especially when it has been placed in bonds or savings.

By the time you throw in state, county, and munincipal taxes, sales taxes, gas tax, licensing taxes, property tax, utility taxes, and god knows what else, it is quite possible for a middle-class person to pay over 50% taxes, and some economists say it is even higher than that.