this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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Because income tax disproportionately effects the people paid less. At the extreme levels of wealth your income can be a few thousand a year - the real money is the massive assets that are leveraged to get loans that are paid back with the investment dividends/interest or business income that pays the loan on behalf of the owner.
Famously Warren Buffet gets paid less than his secretary so she pays more of her available money in tax than he does if they had the same level of wealth. But he has billions and she has thousands. She pays more in income tax than he does - there should be no income tax.
Millions of people that doesn't understand tax brackets. Increasing the tax on high income in no way would disproportionately affect lower income earners. They quite literally would pay the same amount of tax as before. You're absolutely right that the truly disgustingly wealthy don't draw funds from a traditional income, which is why OP said "why not both" to a wealth tax as well as a disincentivizing income tax structure.
I mean, the next major hurdle you need to deal with is the government actually taking those funds and applying them to social services and not corruptly funneling it back to the wealthy anyway.