You've obviously thought about this a lot more than I have. I readily admit that it is an extremely complex issue when analyzed with due consideration of the su

You've obviously thought about this a lot more than I have. I readily admit that it is an extremely complex issue when analyzed with due consideration of the subtleties involved, and I certainly don't profess to be knowledgeable in any meaningful way on tax policy. My point was mostly that Warren Buffet in particular sometimes seems to over-simplify issues such as this one in a way that I think is specious, albeit while at the same time making him look super-populist and folksy. Thanks for pointing out so many things in such an objective fashion without getting into any political rhetoric. I definitely agree that no matter which way you do it, pretty much any taxation scheme is going to be unfair from one perspective or another, and I largely concur on all the issues you bring up. That's why I hate to see Warren Buffet make these simplistic claims that people can rabidly latch on to, rather than a real discussion of the constraints and trade-offs involved like you've done.