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RE: **The Richest Americans Have Much More Pie Than You Think!**
Interesting take. You're right to perceive that I was only thinking about the US, so thanks for adding that to the discussion. I still think a more equitable distribution of wealth would end up benefiting everybody more than it harms them, so you haven't convinced me that we should use taxes to roll the dice in favor of people who already have a lot. Doesn't that weight the dice in their favor? Anyway, thanks for chiming in.
Regardless of how the tax code is structured, the wealthy will always benefit from the legal system in hoarding their ill-gotten gains. Reduction of wealth inequality, or the wealth gap, is positive trend. Well governed and properly functioning society will not permit such ravenous accumulation of resources by a select few. The problem, however, is not legal or political but societal. The modern West has deluded itself in the ludicrous concepts of "meritocracy" and "free" market. As long as accumulation of wealth is justified with "merit" of the blessed chum and rampant inequality rationalized as the "cost" of a "free" market, any social structure will devolve into the mercantile and mercenary sociopolitical dissolution that is the modern West.
While the reality of the class distinction and separartion can not be denied or wished away, in a more older, civilized times, the ruling class frowned upon modern Western mercantile sensibility. The force of social ostracism kept the ruling class on check, regarding excessive wealth accumulation and gaudy displays. Modern "democracy" and the rise of the mercantile muck has ruined decent sensibility.