We need to stop looking at “top xx% of earners” and start thinking in terms of taxes on labor. Every earner should have skin the game, as another poster pointed out, even if its only 1%, but the bulk of the tax burden should fall on people who can afford to write a check to buy a new A/C unit or a 5 series Beamer without worrying about anything vs those who don’t know how they will pay the power bill this month.
That’s why we need consumption taxes and not taxes on labor or capital. Like the Fair Tax.
I used to agree, but I have come to a different view. I don’t want the FedGov involved *at* all with monitoring or taxing economic activity *within* the US borders. There should be no internal revenue ‘service’— go back to tariffs on international trade as the source of Federal Govt tax revenue. No income tax, no payroll tax, no *Federal* sales/consumption tax.