Should the wealthy pay more taxes?

Raising taxes on the wealthy would reduce inequality

Question: Should the wealthy pay more taxes?
Position1 of 2›: Yes, the wealthy should have to pay more in taxes
Argument1 of 3›: Raising taxes on the wealthy would reduce inequality

Income inequality would significantly decrease if the wealthy had to pay more tax, stabilising the middle class.

The argument

The current tax system in most Western capitalist societies creates economic polarisation, dividing society between those with economic means and those without. A system that taxes the poor and rich at a similar rate leaves those on lower income with less money available to meet the growing price of essential goods, including housing, transport, and food. Higher rates of tax on the wealthy as opposed to the poor serves as a check on this and preserves the critical middle classes, ensuring that there is room for social mobility.

Premises

[P1]Taxing the wealthy and the poor at similar rates leaves lower-income people unable to afford essential goods while the wealthy accumulate more, deepening economic polarisation. [P2] Higher tax rates on the wealthy counteract this polarisation by preserving the middle class and enabling social mobility. [C] Therefore, the wealthy should pay more in taxes in order to reduce inequality.

Counter-arguments

The vast majority of wealth and job creation is created through the ingenuity of a minority of individuals who often recycle their wealth by re-investing it into the wider economy. A higher tax on the wealthiest in society disincentivises this behaviour and is often seen as punishing success. It is no surprise that some of the most productive economies in the world with the highest levels of job creation also have lower levels of personal and corporate taxation.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Raising taxes on the wealthy only serves to deincentivise wealth creation.