They have a national "sales tax" in Europe, and it is quite regressive, and that in countries where the income differential is much smaller than here. Look at it very simply, those earnings under, let say $50,000/year will spend all that money and thus will pay that tax on 100% of their income, those earnings $1 MM will, maybe, spend $250,000 and pay taxes on only 25% of their income, that is extremely regressive and shift the burden of taxation on those least capable of handling it, just as the dividend exclusion shifted the tax burden on the population of retirees that do not benefit from that exclusion on funds they draw from their retirements accounts.
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