Sorry john but the regressive income tax is an important part of the Communist Manifesto and has nothing to do with a stable government. The citizens under every corrupt government in history have had their prosperity stolen through an income tax.
Sorry patriot_wes, but I'll take real-world results any day over ideology and theory. And in the real world, the United States started the 20th century as being a minor world power, and by the end of it, we were THE super power. (Coincidently, the income tax began at the beginning of the 20th century.) Is that the result of having our money stolen by a corrupt government?
Now I'm not suggesting for a minute that the income tax is THE reason for this crazy success, but I am suggesting that it plays a part. There is cetainly no lack of rich or mega rich citizens coming into being in the last 100 years, and even the poorest in this country live better than the poor in most countries.
The system needs to be refined, not tossed.
Consumption is more stable and predictable than income anyway if you're looking for stability.