Nobody in his/her right mind is claiming that all people should have exactly the same income or wealth, irrespective of their efforts, education, luck, etc. But there should be some more reasonable ratio where the disparity is not so great as to cause great suffering among the greatest number of people.
Ultimately, if you don’t protect those who are less fortunate, you end up with something that more closely resembles Mexico or a number of African nations where the few wealthy live in guarded homes and drive armoured cars and live in fear of their children being kidnapped, etc. That’s what wealth disparity does. It does not make the less fortunate more productive, it makes them more violent.
Progressive taxes are more like buying protection against violent crime and revolutions. It is the wealthy who benefit at least as much as the poor.
