Nobody really likes to pay taxes but taxes are necessary in order for governments to function, and those that have the highest incomes, are well positioned to pay their fair share. In point of fact, which is unfortunate for the general public, is that the more money that you make, the better lawyers that you can engage, as well as the better lobbyists that can be bought by you and others of your ilk, and the more that you and your cohorts can bend the ears of legislators in this country. The upshot of all this, is an extremely complicated tax code, made specifically that way so as to allow those in the know to pay considerably less in taxes, unfairly burdening those that do not have such a luxury.
The maximum top marginal rate has not been not been higher than 50% since 1981, with the years from 1932-1986 being at a minimum at least 50% as the top rate, with some years, having that top rate at a staggering 94%. Even those that believe that the rich should be soaked probably don't believe that 94% could ever be a fair rate, and no doubt, it is rates such as these, that helped to create the tax dodges that we deal with in the present day.
A far fairer policy would be to not only simplify the tax code so that those that are the richest of the rich, pay their fair share back to society, as not only can they well afford it, it would also serve to reduce considerably the new monetary aristocracy from overturning the democratic roots of America. Further to the point, from a fairness perspective, a maximum rate in which the taxpayer must pay on a 1:1 ratio taxes towards the government seems to be not only inherently fair, but something also that would be hard to argue against, as pundits like to rail against insanely high taxes as being de-motivating to working, whereas $1 for me, $1 for the tax authorities, seems reasonably fair for the most successful of them all, for those making that coin at extremely high levels.
Not only should the Federal Income maximum tax rate be fixed at 50%, this 50% rate should be indexed to ten times the current median income in America, which at the present time, is about $51,500, so that those earning above $515,000 would pay federal income taxes at 50%, and since some States also have high State income taxes, there should be a provision that in aggregate of State, local, and Federal taxes, the petitioner will not pay more than 50% towards those authorities of their income.
In addition, all the sophisticated write-offs, charitable donations, and tricks of the trade that takes a given person's income and thereby creates an adjusted gross income that has been reduced to absurdly low levels so that thereby the person appears to not have much of an income at all, should be phased out so that once your gross income exceeds $515,000 as indexedyearly against the median income, no more deductions or credits to your tax liabilities will be permitted, which would essentially be a reconfiguration of the alternative minimum tax program.
The bottom line is that the superrich have the capacity to pay their fair share of taxes, and 50% is a fair enough trade to make, in order to live and to enjoy life and all its attendant benefits within the confines of the greatest nation in the world.