As for California, a lot of companies moved to Washington to escape the high taxes. Washington used to be a low tax state, but no longer, and companies aren't moving here anymore.
(Washington recently added a capital gains tax, payroll taxes, a $.50 per gallon additional gas tax, and boosted the sales tax to 10.1%.)
Actually I know working class Canadians are -- Canada's system is actually not very progressive compared to many US states, the bottom end of the tax bracket is fairly heavily weighted... but corporations here are sitting pretty. Best gig in Canada (after real estate) is to be a fake "contractor" paying corporate taxes instead of personal income taxes, and stashing your wealth in corporate assets and paying your spouse dividends... it's ridiculous.
In any case, to throw it back: Something is paying for the US's massive defense sector. What do you think it is?
Taxes and deficits. Both of which are extracted from the economy.
The thing is, we need people to pay taxes because our public systems are having major issues and people earning or paying less is a real problem for all of us. Would I like to get more from what I earn? Yeah, in a sense. Do I need it? Not as much as the average Canadian. Not even close.
For 10 years I worked at Google and pulled in what I would consider a ridiculous salary. But over 50% of it was pulled away in taxes. I am a socialist by conviction so don't complain about these kinds of taxes much, but it really chafed me to see people in contracting situations bringing in more than me by squirreling away money, hiding it from the gov't in these kinds of corporate arrangements.