&gt; I generally agree with your argument, but there&#x27;s an argument to be made that rich people benefit more from eg protection of property by the police, because they do have more property.<p>That isn&#x27;t a problem on the tax side, it&#x27;s a problem on the services side. (And that specific example is almost irrelevant because enforcing property rights is such a tiny proportion of government expenditures.) If the rich are getting $5500 worth of government services and the poor are getting $4500, then change what services the government provides.<p>Although notice that it&#x27;s still progressive even in that case as long as the difference is small: If the rich pay $10,000 in taxes and get $5500 in government services while the poor pay $2500 in taxes and get $4500 in government services, there is still a transfer of wealth from rich to poor.<p>A good way to dispense with the calculations is to make the primary &quot;government service&quot; a basic income. You don&#x27;t get $5000 in &quot;government services,&quot; you just get $5000.