This entire essay is a “[citation needed]”. Aside from the lack of evidence given for basic claims (like that the rich support higher taxes), it seems to take

This entire essay is a “[citation needed]”. Aside from the lack of evidence given for basic claims (like that the rich support higher taxes), it seems to take as a given that all tax codes are regressive (what about wealth taxes?)—a critical assumption in its argument. Yet even if the evidence were presented, causality would be tough to establish. An easy reason to assume, hypothetically, that countries with a higher degree of inherited wealth would have more popular support for higher taxes is not that taxes are a ploy by the rich (what?) but that democracies tend to favor higher taxes when wealth distribution appears less fair—and that getting rich due to the luck of birth appears especially unfair. What’s especially irksome about this essay is that, if it has a policy argument, that argument seems to be, “give up on public policy. The rich will just pervert it anyway.” That’s very disappointingly cynical.