Well, as indicated in the original post in this thread in reference to the taxing system in this country, those ten guys, (if following the tax code guidelines) would be asked to vote on how they wanted to divide that bill, based on a majority rules, regardless of the ones paying the most agreeing with it or not. Since the majority of that group consisted of lower wage earners, it was predictable how that would turn out.
As has been stated, 5 percent of the earning population is paying 53% of the tax bill (if I remember the figures correctly). That pretty much indicates that a majority of that 95 percent of the population VOTED to have it that way, regardless of what that minority of voters want it to be. Politicians have very little resistance to bills that target the "rich" to extract money from them to pay for their boondoggles, so this is a popular method to employ in the halls of Congress. The majority really doesn't care as long as someone else is going to foot the bill.
And as for the comments about hard work not being equivalent to high pay, well in a way it is. Generally the people who have proven to be successful worked HARD at getting there, not necessarily HARD (as far as manual labor is concerned) at the job they are currently doing. Everyone had opportunities and choices to make all throughout their lives that they either pursued or chose not to. That's fine, because that is their freedom of choice, but is it really fair to expect the rest of the country to take up the slack that they chose to not take up themselves? Yeah, it takes a lot of hard work to become an attorney, or a doctor, or climb the corporate ladder to become a CEO. Does anyone really think that all of the people who have become doctors, lawyers, or CEOs DIDN'T work hard to get there? Heck, besides the grind of academia, what does it COST to go through the schooling to become a doctor or lawyer? Someone had to work hard to pay for that, I believe, regardless of the work that doctor or lawyer had to undergo to get established and DO something with that degree. Granted there ARE some of that 5 percent that inherited the wealth and didn't lift a finger to get it, but SOMEONE likely worked darn hard to accumulate that wealth, don't you think?
Sorry, I just cannot agree that taxing someone more because they make more is in any way consistent with guiding philosophy of the country that our founding fathers tried to create. It penalizes the portion of the population that works, or has worked, the hardest and rewards the larger portion of the public who in most of the cases have chosen to not work as hard.
And yes, obviously I believe that ANYONE can attain anything they would like if they work hard enough to get there. And they will have to sacrifice some things to gain others. It all depends on the choices they are WILLING to make.
