Reply #17: Oh, I've heard libertarian nonsense second-hand.

[BzaDem]

That you can't really raise taxes on the wealthy, since they'll just shift income and avoid or not work as hard, etc etc etc. They think you can set rates to be whatever you want, but the revenue brought in will still be the same percent of GDP. (Even though Europe seems to be collecting more taxes from the rich just fine.)

Other libertarians have a different conception of morality than most of us here. Ayn Randers think that a completely free market is the only moral allocation of resources, and that the current progressive taxation scheme already makes the rich "immorally" "sacrifice" more than they should. Some are even against a flat percentage tax, since it makes the rich pay more (in dollars) than the poor for the "same" services.

If you look hard enough, you can find a million justifications for it. The problem (for them) is that they are bogus, or stem from (in my opinion) a flawed notion of morality. Ultimately, they will never fully get their way, since they will fortunately never be able to convince the majority that the only legitimate purpose of government is to protect their wealth.