It’s not about fixing things.

It’s about the fact that it’s ok for people to be very rich, as long as they pay their fair share.

If they don’t pay their fair share then there’s good reason to argue there shouldn’t be ultra wealthy people. Then they’re just exploitative leeches on society.

I find it really hard to understand why the rich don’t make it easier on themselves by being responsible members of society instead of relentlessly focusing on keeping poor people poor.

Pay some taxes, contribute to roads and schools and hospitals.

> I find it really hard to understand why the rich don’t make it easier on themselves by being responsible members of society instead of relentlessly focusing on keeping poor people poor.

unlimited greed

prior to the end of the cold war, and especially prior to world war 2, this was kind of the deal between old money in europe and the socialists..

Otherwise the masses would seize the wealth of the aristrocracy by force, which usually leads to civil war.

If they could charge more, they'd already be charging more.

Seconding this. The idea that rich people have a target (after-tax) income and will charge whatever it takes to hit that income is absurd. The target is infinite, and they are already doing everything in their power to make their income as large as possible under current conditions. The fact that their income ever got so large is an indication that they already have too much power to increase their income at the expense of others (not least by convincing a share of the population that their wealth/income is inevitable and/or a necessary condition for the prosperity of others).

Also in Portugal most these taxes aren't even for people from the 1%, it's just taxing people in the middle class.

So if tax avoidance schemes were focused on and they were taxed appropriately then tax burden could be reduced on wage earners and the likes. People like you....Which in turn makes it so they have to charge their employers less for their labour according to this zero sum economy you envision.

Which then of course would impact consumer prices.