I went up to a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and asked him, "If the government taxed so much of your income that you only made $100 million in total compensation last year, what would you do?"
He said, "I'd quit my job, fire everyone, shut down the factory, and never work a day again. I would have no incentive to be in business, so I'd rather be homeless and a burden on taxpayers. Truly I'd be just as well off on welfare."
"But surely," I said, "one of the other seven- and eight-figure executives in your company would step in to take your place, right?"
In a completely believable way, they all happened to be standing around at the time, and shouted in unison, "Hell no! If I can't make at least 10,000 times more than the lowest paid worker in the company then I'm taking my ball and going home. It just isn't fair!"
Then they balled their fists, stamped their feet, and trudged off to form a union.
I was moved to tears by their sacrifice. If only we hadn't Taxed Their Asses Enough Already (TM), they'd have had an incentive to work hard and buy gold-plated Ferraris for their superyacht, just as Jesus and Ayn Rand intended.
Lo, what bastards we would be, expecting them to settle for just enough to buy a few dozen regular Ferraris. I ask you, how many American jobs would that create?
It's not fair, and it's not the America I grew up in.