Many people argue against progressive taxation, because they don't understand how federal income taxation works in the first place. Unfortunately, this ignorance is only perpetuated by the mass of websites and software programs that dumb down the information. Here is amore accurate description found at Moneychimp.com

"Your tax bracket is the rate you pay on the "last dollar" you earn; but as a percentage of your income, your tax rate is generally less than that. To take an example, suppose your taxable income was exactly $100,000 in 2003 and your status was Married filing separately; then your tax would be calculated like this:

(	$ 7,000 -	0 )	x .10 :	$ 700
(	28,400 -	7,000 )	x .15 :	3,210
(	57,325 -	28,400 )	x .25 :	7,231
(	87,350 -	57,325 )	x .28 :	8,407
(	100,000 -	87,350 )	x .33 :	4,175
	Total:	$ 23,723

This puts you in the 33% tax bracket; but as a percentage of your income, your tax is about 23.7%."

What this means is that the poorest of the poor are taxed at the same rate as the richest of the rich on the first $7,000. Although, overall, the person in the example above is taxed at an average rate 23.7, each person (wealthy and dirt poor) is taxed equivalently for the amount of money each has in each tax bracket. In essence, although our tax code looks progressive, it isn't. If we skimp out on the details and just look at broad averages, it can look deceivingly like the rich are taxed more on their money. This is not necessarily true, as the poorest of the poor can't participate in the 35% tax rate, because he or she never earns enough income to be taxed at that rate, and the richest person that does have income in that bracket does not pay that rate (35%) for his/her entire income. Rather, the rich guy only pays on how much of the income leaks into that bracket. Remember that his first $7,000 is taxed at the same rate as the lowest taxed person, the same holds true for the next chunk of his change that ends up in the second tax bracket.

Now that we understand why I don't weep at the rich woman's tax rate, let's look at a couple other things the wealthy have going for them. The first is that they get to deduct more because they spend more. Someone who earns $7,000 per annum will never spend enough to make deductions on his tax form. The woman who earns $200,000 will end up spending enough that she can deduct thousands, if not tens of thousands from her tax filing. What this means in many cases is that, after deductions, the wealthier individuals end up paying, LESS a percentage of their income in taxes than the poor.

Finally, let's talk about capital gains tax. Capital gains are the monies earned in interest from investments. Capital gains in 2000 were taxed at 10% for the first bracket and 20% for the second bracket (there only being two brackets, unlike income tax). Now, let's compare the people who earn their bread through work and those who earn it through investment, sippin' on their martinis. The person who works for a living will get taxed at the tax rates listed in the example above from moneychimp. The person who earns their income from capital gains while sitting back playing polo and drinking fine scotch will actually pay less in taxes than the person who earns the same amount from working. For example, in 2000, for two people each earning $100,000 a year, one from work and one from investments, the one earning her wage from working will pay approximately $29,600 in taxes. The one earning their $100,000 from capital gains will only pay approximately $19,600 in taxes. The person who earned her $100,000 from work will pay a tax rate 50% higher than the person who doesn't work and just collects from capital gains. THIS IS ASS-BACKWARDS. The only place where capital gains taxes exceed federal income taxes happen only in the case that the person working earns less than $28,000. But, of course, the comparison is irrelevant for that person, because he's only making $28,000 from work can't afford to invest and make income on capital gains; he's barely paying the bills. He's not even in the game for there to be any comparison.

In short, the less one makes, the more of one's income one might pay in taxes. Likewise, if one earns one's income through work, one pays more of one's income in taxes than the guy who does shit and just collects on capital gains. As you can hopefully begin to see from this small window into the world of taxation, the poor get fornicated by paying the larger percentage of their income in order to support the habits of the avarice-inflicted of society - those who do not work and get richer for just sitting on their asses (and collecting on capital gains). Workers of the world unite!