Reply #13: Well that is a failure on distribution of wealth not necessarily capitalism. [View All]

US GDP has increased almost 50% in last decade.

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=graph+of+US+GDP

So a massive amount of wealth is being produced in the US. The problem is the playing field has been made even more uneven so rather than all that productivity gains being shared (20% to poor, 60% to middle class, 30% to wealthy, 10% to insanely rich) it has been all one sided. (-10% to poor, 0% to middle class, 20% to wealthy, 80% to insanely rich).

Progressive taxation is important for two reasons:
1) places burden on those who have benefited the most
2) puts less emphasis for a company to give insane compensation to the 0.00000000001%.

I mean who cares if you increase a guys compensation from $10 million to $100 million if that increase is taxed at 80%. It simply means the company volunteered to give another $60 million to the govt in taxes (indirectly through CEO income tax).