You don’t speak for me. I would rather pay my taxes than have the money if I know every one else is in the same situation as me in being obligated to pay taxes. That is not the current status quo. Tax shelters and tax minimization strategies generally are tools that are not beneficial to market participants equally. It’s simply not worth the trouble unless you are offsetting a substantial tax liabilities. It’s not always the case that tax liabilities increase as wealth increases. Taxes don’t always go up with your income either. The fact that these variations and exclusions and deductions exist show intent to tax fairly and a desire to not double tax if not a reality. Yet the clear evidence that in real world examples, very high net worth individuals pay less than those in the upper middle class. Taxing proportional ability to pay seems fairer than the current system. That this is not the natural order of the tax system is itself curious. The governments of the world already deficit spend in excess of tax revenues. The tax system isn’t any more about fairness than it is about the money. If the government was able to choose to forgive your tax liability due to an exclusion or deduction, it could choose to do so for the entire tax base. It is not necessary to tax system to exist in its current state. It is the way it is because it benefits those who have money and power for it to be this way. Maybe this is why Fukuyama foresaw the end of history. We just ran out of ideas so this is the closest thing we got to a steady state society.