Wealth inequality is the better measure. And by that measure, wealth inequality is getting worse in the U.S. and indefinite worsening of inequality is untenable

Wealth inequality is the better measure. And by that measure, wealth inequality is getting worse in the U.S. and indefinite worsening of inequality is untenable for a civil society and functioning democracy. Also, all earned income (wages) is subject to payroll tax from the very first dollar and that is a tax on one's income. But setting aside FICA, there is a disturbing vulgarity in saying only poor people pay nothing in income tax, because rich people also pay nothing in income tax on that exact same amount of money. That's how tax brackets work. Person A makes $15,000 a year and pays no income tax; person B makes $1.5 million but likewise pays no income tax on their "first" $15,000. So I find picking on poor people, who pay a disproportionate amount of their income on sales and property taxes than wealthy people, rather ignorant and obscene. The mere fact that wealth inequality continues to get worse does tell me there is a deficiency in tax policy. I don't really care about an arbitrary emotive like "fairness" - what I care about is avoiding the destabilization of civility and that is guaranteed to have a breaking point at a certain level of inequality. It is not necessary to enforce a classless, egalitarian society, in order to narrow the wealth inequally gap to something more sane and then maintain that gap (for those who want to protect classism, anyway).