To be clear, I'm not advocating egalitarianism, or contending that it's the highest value. The goal is to align policy with our most defensible values and ideal

To be clear, I'm not advocating egalitarianism, or contending that it's the highest value. The goal is to align policy with our most defensible values and ideals (hard work, fairness, merit, etc.). If the wealthy truly believe we live in a meritocracy, in which the hardest working and most competent end up the most well off, then taxing wealth should be preferred to taxing capital gains. Any hard working and competent wealthy person should have little trouble earning returns on their personal capital that far exceed a ~1.5% annual wealth tax (over a multi-year time horizon). Only those who choose to do little with their wealth, or cannot manage it competently, end up worse off. But this accords well with "survival of the fittest", yet another value often espoused by the world's wealthiest. In other words, the goal here isn't socialism, it's rationality.