I'm actually one of the people who think that the top 0.001% are fine. People like Buffett and Gates own valuable companies. There's not much we can do to change income inequality there, largely because it's not income, it's someone's private property.

I think the truly disgusting income inequality is at the top 0.01-0.001%. The overpaid CEOs who make absurd amounts of guaranteed cash. We have a tax code that absolutely incentivizes CEOs to look out for their salaries and one time cash bonuses rather than any stock grants they get.

We used to have a tax code that favored capital gains in the extreme, but now we overly favor income. Which would your rather have? A grant of 10 million dollars in a volatile asset that has a one year lock out period and a 20% haircut, or a guaranteed 10 million dollars with no lock out and an effective haircut of ~40%. You're losing only 20% of the money as a guarantee. Most people seem to be interested in the latter option.

Whenever we have debates about raising capital gains tax Republicans rightly point out that capital gains tax doesn't actually generate that much revenue for the US government. They're right, but that's insane, given how much wealth we generate every year.

I'm all for paying people well, but make them earn it!