They're completely different taxes that are taxing money used for the same purpose. To put it another way, for the very wealthy, capital gains is their "income

They're completely different taxes that are taxing money used for the same purpose. To put it another way, for the very wealthy, capital gains is their "income" (in a colloquial sense). They gain a tax advantage by making their money through a different route. One that is unavailable to most (at least in sufficient quantities to live on). > Hell let's just throw property taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes and every other tax in there and then compare... There's not much point. They're discussing rates, not absolute amounts. Those are all fixed-rate, so they're the same for everyone (maybe not property taxes in all jurisdictions? I'm not sure). Gas taxes do apply; electric cars pay no or reduced gas tax. The same discussion has been brought up, since gas taxes pay for highway maintenance.