Reddit mentions of Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance

His conclusion is the same as mine - ultimately the wealthy will be forced to pay for the welfare of the less fortunate. The means might be different but the end game is the same. If the government doesn't do it, the masses will reenact the French Revolution if pressed hard enough.

Interesting book: http://www.amazon.com/Unjust-Deserts-Taking-Common-Inheritance/dp/1595584021

Basic argument is that the average person hasn't benefitted a whit from productivity enhancements - it all goes to the most wealthy, yet the most wealthy are not wealthy in proportion to their value, but rather based on blind luck. They remain wealthy not through superior skill but because the system is stacked to make it easy to keep and grow large pockets of wealth at the expense of the rest.

I don't take it as gospel, yet the abuses of Wall Street execs, who are clearly not adding millions of value to the US economy, yet are siphoning that off for themselves each year, gives the idea plausibility. As a software developer, I've enabled companies to massively increase productivity and do more with fewer people, but my salary never rises in anything close to proportion to the wealth I generate. This is true of all employees who have helped their companies do more with less.

This, coupled with massive war debt, leads me to believe that the US should return the the tax structure we had immediately following WW II which would result in 97% tax on incomes over $3 million until the debt is paid down (a couple generations).

For a more modern take on that argument check out Unjust Deserts by Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly.

Yep:

https://www.amazon.com/Unjust-Deserts-Taking-Common-Inheritance/dp/1595584021

Read Unjust Deserts. Trust me, it'll have everything you're looking for.