I wonder how we justify what people "should" pay. I mean it seems like there's some benefit to any person for the protection of society (police, fire, etc...),

I wonder how we justify what people "should" pay. I mean it seems like there's some benefit to any person for the protection of society (police, fire, etc...), and that's probably close to constant per person. It's not like rich people have their houses burn down more often. And then there is protecting the balance in your bank account, and maybe there is some justification that the protection cost is proportional (linear) to your account. Similarly for your income - linear tax could kind of make sense. But how do we arrive at the conclusion that any tax should be super-linear? As for taxing wealth, I think a lot of young and naive people fail to realize that their eventual retirement savings will fall into the same category. Try and make sure your sweeping new policies to punish the billionaires don't horribly impact the ability for middle class to quit working before they die.