When we saw the $700 per month daycare, which we got no deduction for because we made too much money, the second commute expenses, the wardrobe demands, the monies pissed away to pay people to do the things around our home that we had no time to fix because we were too busy working, and the added tax burden, it was real clear.
Of course there is the risk of the one job being lost, exported, outsourced, and the family being in a crisis. That's what the gubmint is counting on! Scare both parents into working!
That's a killer. Without a monsterous mortgage, you are less likely to have enough deductions to get you past the standard limit, in my observation. It's pretty stacked against the upper middle class. I pay the IRS more than 25% of my income every year. Then there is the state, local, school, phone, road...
Everybody wants a piece of me.