Along similar lines, no one makes a lot of money apart from the work and sacrifice of others. Case in point is Steve Jobs. It's apparent that much of his success is built on the work of Dennis Ritchie. Even the graphical user interface and mouse were ideas or confirmation of ideas Jobs got from his visit to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the late 1970s. Would Jobs have made billions if not for the invention of the microprocessor by Intel, the ideas developed by Xerox at Palo Alto, or the work of Dennis Ritchie? Probably not. The progressive income tax system, called for by Republican president Theodore Roosevelt, is how society recoups its investments in human capital, infrastructure and the political system from those who prosper most from those investments.
If we are going to implement a flat income tax system then we should also implement an "after the fact" patent system that allows people like Dennis Ritchie to collect royalties from those who subsequently benefit from their work.
