Passing a flat tax in a major democracy is difficult because it's a tax designed to be heavily regressive whilst sounding vaguely fair if you dont pay too much

Passing a flat tax in a major democracy is difficult because it's a tax designed to be heavily regressive whilst sounding vaguely fair if you dont pay too much attention. It's equally hard if not harder to pass a well run progressive tax (e.g. a land value tax). Instead we get a hodgepodge of progressive and regressive combined to reflect the power struggle between oligarchy and democracy that makes up most western power centers. Also we get mollified with political pipe dreams designed to be easy to murder in their sleep (e.g. UBI) to take the heat off more "dangerous to profit" policies like minimum wage hikes.