This simply doesn't work- nor does it benefit society on a whole. The reality is most of the rich people in this nation are what is referred to as new money- people who've become rich by moving up the income ladder. Depending on the economic innovation waves, investments fluctuate the ecomony expands at various rates, new jobs are created and old fields die or are shipped to other country's that will do them for lower costs; credit is cheaper or more expensive, interest rates are lower or higher, bond yields fluctuate. The economy is so complex to assume the government can take money from some today and redistribute it to another tomorrow and nothing will occur is pure ignorance. Nothing has proven better for those in the lower income brackets than lower taxes and a freer economy and nothing has proven more disastrous than forcing investments into low risk tax shelters and retarding growth with higher taxes. A quick examination of nations with lower tax margins and those with higher will quickly reveal that redistributive policies don't work. The composite EU unemployment rate is over 10% whereas the United States is currently at 5%. The average mobility rate in the United States is much quicker that anywhere in the world- yes this is the land of opportunity for a reason. More people own their homes here than anywhere in industrialized world. Things that are commonplace in the US are luxuries in other areas. Medical care is more advanced. The benefits to lower marginal tax rates is simply overwhelming- it does exactly what redistributive policies portend to accomplish. Update*** Magellan, there are a few reasons for the widening gap between rich and poor but that's not necessarily a bad thing: (i) The static poor are a fixed income group that only increases with the rate of inflation. With the rest of those actively working in the economy, accumulating wealth and human capital the ceiling is not fixed hence the gap is going to continue to increase- there's nothing wrong with that so long as the bottom bracket is still congruent with the cost of essential goods. (ii) The poor as an income group are not fixed and those individuals move up through the income brackets attaining wealth while new people enter the labor market. In a prosperous economy there is always going to be a greater chasm between the rich and poor- that's a good thing particularly when the costs of goods and services stay stable and mobility is rapid. Hypothetically if I said my economic policies will double everyone's income in two years- that would be a great policy no? But the gap would between rich and poor would widen greatly because now Joe Washbucket who was making 35k is making 70k but Joe Investmentbanker went from making 500k to 1 million. **** Jon, your statistics regarding the Reagan years are patently false- try utilizing labor department statistics and not regurgitating mendacious claims from leftists blogs and promulgating them as fact.