we pay taxes all the time, you may not even realize it but when you buy something, read the receipt as it mentions the tax you paid. you pay taxes over and over being poor, no one is exempted. centuries ago people wage war all because the government is collecting tax from the hard-earned money by people but now we are used to it already that even if they increase the rates, we're all obedient.
Right! So even those poor people still paying taxes in a very different ways, that's also the reason why people are struggling in their daily expenses because everything they need has a tax payment, that results higher expenses. maybe we only see the big deductions due to tax payments but in reality, the tax bill is the same for everyone, it just differs depending on the state of your life.
It usually differs from country to another but each country has what we call a tax bracket. If you earn x amount of salary, then you might belong to a bracket where the government can tax you 15% to 30% of your salary. Probably lower if your salary is also lower.
How does this
not help lower / middle class people?
The government only helps people under a specific economic class and once they start earning, they stop all kinds of support and taxes them. Obviously with how much they are paying in their daily expenses, they are bound to go back to poverty again. This can be called the paradox of poverty which I think was very well explained in this video:
https://youtu.be/D9N7QaIOkG8?si=02Q0JF1kXkuqcbDM