Progress in the taxation system will never happen until we get rid of the class-warfare axiom that the rich need to be punished for their success. It isn't "fair" enough that those who make ten times the income pay ten times the taxes. It has to be more.
Never mind that the rich pay almost all the income taxes in America already, and the percentage keeps going up, something that belies your third paragraph.
Class warfare suits the government power structure just fine. Like a gaming conflict, the house always wins. The goal, of course, is a society where those who don't pay taxes outnumber the tax payers, something we're already very close to. In a system controlled by democratic votes, that's all you need to keep power.
The view that the government is the source of economic and social success, and the only thing preventing this country from collapsing into some kind of corporate dictatorship under the ravaging free market, has been carefully nurtured in our society by that same government.
Again, if McDonalds were telling you hamburgers were nutritious, would you buy it?
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Taxes