To the great frustration of liberals everywhere, taxing the rich (and only the rich) is nearly impossible. If you tax something they buy, they stop buying it. If you tax an income they earn, they figure out how to earn a different kind of income. Many other countries have tried directly taxing their wealth, and the rich move their wealth outside the country or they renounce their citizenship and move their wealth to another country (that won't tax it) and then buy homes in places around the world. The US gets a higher proportion of tax revenue from its rich by following a different strategy. We don't have that many loopholes (believe it or not) for escaping the income tax, and with a relatively low rate (39.6% is low relative to the rest of the world) there is a lower motivation to try to get out of it.

Any ideas?