[Antoninus]

Honestly, I think a wealth tax is more honest than an income tax for the following reason: the income tax protects the power of those with established wealth and acts as a gatekeeper, suppressing the nouveau-riche and making it hard for them to reach established wealth status. Thus, a wealth tax would attack the established elite as opposed to rising entrepreneurs and brilliant young business people who are generating huge incomes.

As a result, an outright "wealth tax" has zero chance of actually passing because the left holds an extraordinary amount of the wealth in this country already. The income tax serves their purpose perfectly.

[Ohioan]

You are looking for ulterior motives in justifying something clearly outside of the Constitutional intent. The last thing the founders would have wanted for the Federal Government was a role in trying to reengineer American society or social values. Wealth Tax