Less Bread, More Taxes

Radicals and liberals have always championed progressive income tax as the ideal form of taxation—though its potential of placing the burden of social costs on the rich has never been more than window dressing. The large incomes that are subject to top income-tax rates are generally the result of investment and, obviously, nobody will make such investments if the government is going to get 70 percent of the proceeds. In practice, and to permit the system to work, all kinds of loopholes (abo...