I want an unlimited gap between rich and poor! Why? Any limit on how rich you can get is, by definition, the limit of your opportunity. How does government limit the gap? Taxation. When JFK entered office, the top tax bracket was 90%. That meant that for every additional dollar you made, 90 cents was taxed and sent to Washington. JFK lowerd it to 70 cents, and there was a huge spike of growth. Vietnam, the War on Poverty (massive spending increases) and the oil shock, eventually killed the growth. Ford and Carter fiddled while the economy muddled along. Then came Reagan. He dropped the top tax rate from 70 to 28. The explosion in economic growth is the stuff of legend. Congress never dampened the spending, though, which is why the deficits were so staggering. But the lesson was clear: Lower taxes = more growth, and an actual increase in government revenue. Oh, and with that increased economic growth, the gap between the rich (and motivated) and the poor (and unmotivated) increased sharply. And Reagan got hammered over that. So, how would you rather live? In a society where your opportunity is limited by crushing taxation, or free and open, where your success is rewarded? Remember that, when they start talking about "Millionaire taxes".