As I’ve said may times before, taxes aren’t about fairness, efficiency, etc. Taxes are about keeping the masses from revolting. I’d rather pay 40% of my income to the government and have the economic and social stability necessary to continue compounding wealth (albeit at a lower rate as a result of the taxes) as opposed to having a 10% income tax and having everything I own taken from me in a revolution. 100% of zero is still zero. Taxes are the price we pay for (relative) stability even though they’re incredibly inefficient and generally “unfair” (whatever that means). I’m a small-l libertarian at heart, but I recognize that varying degrees of success in capitalism (even the watered-down kind we practice here) ultimately involve a fair amount of luck. To some extent, progressive taxes are in effect a tax on some of that luck to be redistributed to those less lucky. It ain’t a perfect system, but at least we don’t have revolutions (yet, at least).
