according to Wiki Answers the top 5 % pay 57% of all the taxes.

The class warfare is from the top down. Since Reagan was in office in the 80's, much more of  the countrys wealth has gone upwards towards the richest people. The net result is stagnation in the economy and loss of local economies....More wealth in the hands of the poorer people means the money tends to stay more in local economies...The money is spend here because poor people don't spend their money on extravagant things...they spend on necessities.

Brad Pitt should be taxed on his 20 million dollar pay days. He gets what he gets because people are willing to spend money on his movies. I have no problem. I don't think the Government should be regulating people salaries...but they should tax people making 20 million dollars and redistribute it because it is good for the society as a whole.

If the NYT's wants to give bonus's to it's employees, who are you and I to complain? But if people are making a huge amount of money, they should pay more into the society for the good of that society from which they benefit.

We have too much money going into a segment of the society which doesn't  necessarily reinvest that money into America. When this happens, as during the age of the Robber Barons- John Gaults favorite time- economies stagnate, because money flows from the bottom up.

Personally, I think John Stuart Mill is a much better thinker than Ayn Rand ever could have hoped to be.