It boggles my mind too. I know the arguments for it. The "rewards of previous hard work" ignores inheritance (plus other kinds of favoritism and/or luck). The "

It boggles my mind too. I know the arguments for it. The "rewards of previous hard work" ignores inheritance (plus other kinds of favoritism and/or luck). The "risk premium" argument has some merit, but doesn't come close to justifying the "all of it" premium that we're actually close to. Other arguments ignore power or information asymmetries, various kinds of market failure, etc. None of them even come close to matching the obvious point that work should be rewarded more than non-work. The direct fruits of individual labor should be the last thing we tax.