Two excellent reasons to OPPOSE gay marriage in the UK

[Tiberius]

Under a progressive tax system, people who have the least amount of money would have more to spend and people with the most amount of money would, in any reasonable sense, still have vast amounts of money to spend on whatever they wanted without any practical limit.

Unless there is something approaching equality in income (there is not and I think you'll agree that it should not be), then equality in taxation is not really fair at all.

Well, I think this highlights a misunderstanding of the point of taxation. It isn't supposed to leave people with the same (or even similar) amount of money to themselves; the function of taxation is to fund government and society.

There is nothing inherently unfair about a millionaire being left with more money than they could ever spend after being taxed, whilst I do think it is unfair to leave a person with less money than they need to survive after being taxed. At the end of the day, a millionaire isn't at fault for earning that much (unless they earn it through illegal means), so there is no reason to punish them for it.

That's why I don't agree with the progressive tax system which tries to take more money from millionaires just because they have more. It is their money; and even if they don't spend it all, there are ways in which to spend it (buying islands, donating to charity, etc.)

Another thing that should be noted is that millionaires often contribute to society yet do not necessarily require the functions that society gives. As an extreme example, there could be a billionaire who lives in a remote mansion, with its own generators, and access to private healthcare / other facilities, without ever requiring society's help. Should this person be taxed? Yes, of course, just as someone who chose to live in the woods should be taxed if they earn an income, but there is no reason to tax them more than their fair share.

There were a few complaints from a number of billionaires in the UK recently, as they were getting a winter fuel allowance from the government, since all people over a certain age are given it. The billionaires wanted a method of giving it back or opting out, because it's silly to give benefits out to people who clearly have no use for them. So the system works badly in both ways in that respect.