>>Because federal income tax is based on income, not wealth.
Does this definition of income include "capital gain" which is a major/main source of additional wealth for the already wealthy and is taxed at only 15%? Some of the richest people I know don't bother to pay themselves any income at all these days.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
