Earned vs unearned income.

Taxes on unearned income (i.e. income from simply owning something) have eased over time relative to taxes on earned income (i.e. income from actual productive activity).

Those that argue against wealth taxes on the basis that they discourage hard work and productive activity are often hypocrites in my opinion. They are usually more interested in maintaining a system that has a tendency towards concentration of wealth instead of promoting a system that encourages positive contribution to overall wealth (i.e. societal progress).

Property markets are a glaring example of this.

Sort of. Picketty writes that it’s about the capital to labor replacement ratio. If you can replace labor with more capital (I.e. robots, automation, tools/equipment - etc), then wealth is going to tend to concentrate. With the speed of technological innovation today, this is largely the case.

> Taxes on unearned income (i.e. income from simply owning something) have eased over time relative to taxes on earned income (i.e. income from actual productive activity).

Over what time period? Canada didn't even have capital gains taxes pre 1972.

Looking a bit more recently, after Canada added capital gains taxes, Chretien cut the inclusion rate by 50%.