I am sympathetic to your point of view, but I don't think that 'fairness' should enter into the design tax code. Then every group that can garner some sympathy will have their special clause... and that's pretty much what we have now. The massive tax code is the result of a generations long battle over 'fairness' such that there is special consideration for toy arrows as oppose to real arrow.
Some smart economists need to figure out the best tax method to simply extract money for the government to spend while causing the least amount of economic damage and then we just tell the country to deal with it and move on.
I’m not retired but know people who are. It is not RIGHT for a retiree on SS and a pension to pay more taxes than a working person and they do. Seniors whose spouse has died fare much worse after the death than they should. It does not take less for them to live, it usually takes more. Especially for women.
Maybe you’ll understand why some day.
If more paid taxes and it was all proportional to income maybe the taxes would be lower for some classes and “sympathy” might not be attractive or needed.