I don't think that's true, I think it just reduces income inequality. If you have a high tax rate for higher earners, the wealthy will do stuff like $1 income a

I don't think that's true, I think it just reduces income inequality. If you have a high tax rate for higher earners, the wealthy will do stuff like $1 income and compensation in stock instead. That doesn't really hurt the wealthy, but it certainly hurts people with a high income, but little wealth. Personally, I don't see the point in trying to reduce wealth accumulation. People who amass a lot of wealth generally do so by creating something of value for society. If you remove the ability to get fabulously wealthy, I think you also reduce innovation. Would you risk everything on an idea if there was no chance of a massive payoff? Probably not. Likewise, if you are successful with one idea, you are much more likely to be successful with another, but if you don't have much capital, you can't pursue additional ideas. For example, Elon Musk wouldn't be able to start Space X, Tesla, etc at the same time (and probably none of them) if his "excess" wealth were confiscated. The whole discussion about wealth/income inequality seems to be missing the mark entirely IMO. The important thing is that innovation continues to happen and the lifestyle of the average and the bottom continue to improve. Let me set up two scenarios, A and B. In A, people have a very similar standard of living (very little wealth inequality), but innovation is fairly low, so quality of life increases fairly slowly. In B, there is a very large wealth inequality, but innovation is quite high, so even the poor experience at least a moderate quality of life increase year over year. So in B, the average "poor" person (say, median of the bottom 10%) has a higher quality of life than the average person in A. Which is preferable? What if B has some people slip through the cracks, but the vast majority are better off? Personally, I prefer B, and choose to donate so those at the bottom are taken care of. However, some of my friends prefer A because people wouldn't know that more rapid progress is possible.