[revo13]

$60,000 income with std deduction and personal deduction equates to a tax burden of $8,219 or effectively 13.7%. $1,060,000 income equates to a tax burden of $406,314 or effectively 38.3% (treated as a short term capital gain).

That is money I could have saved and invested BEFORE being taxed an extraordinary rate for it relative to my place in life. I happened into money when I'm typically taxed at <14%, and nearly 40% of it is taken from me. Simply because I earned it over the span of 12 months. What if I built a company over 10 yrs and that is the culmination of that?

>> All the rich people would just buy them overseas.

That is a fair point. That said, if I buy something overseas from Europe right now, I don't pay VAT (coming from US). A large number of vendors compensate for this and keep the prices for US purchasers high and not an exact match to their Euro prices. So I think in practice you would see overseas retailers raising their prices to come close (or match) the US price that includes the consumption tax. That would balance out and lead people to do the easy thing and just buy in the US. Maybe... Maybe not...