Spain has notoriously high unemployment, which means that it is entirely possible that transferring wealth from employed upper-middle class government workers to unemployed people is still progressive, even if the rich (high skilled non-government workers and owners) aren't asked to help in that transfer.
You are postulating that it can help the poor and lower middle class for the poor and lower middle class to gang up with the wealthy and soak the upper middle class, as opposed to the poor and middle class ganging up to soak the rich (and yes, the two are mutually exclusive - coalitions don't form and disband overnight).
I'd like to see a historical example or two of the former ever actually working to improve income and income security for the poor.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
So splitting hairs over income taxes is, indeed, regressive. Income is not where the real inequality in economic power lies. By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
Actually, most of European politics can be summarized as a political arrangement between the owner class and the working class and poor to tax the upper middle class bourgeoisie in order to fund large welfare states. (See Jonas Pontusson, Equality and Prosperity: Social Europe vs. Liberal America)
Duplicate comment deleted. By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
