Fair is absolutely a third rail

As was tripped below.

In the roommate situation, we both have similar living accommodations so we pay the same rent. If I get the bigger bedroom, I pay more. Those are fairly "easy" definitions of fair.

I would agree with you that it's murkier when it comes to consumption - I didn't intend for my argument to advocate for use-based taxes, more to highlight the problem with people who think that consumption only will solve all our ills (when some people cannot afford to consume).

The other part (of which I don't really have data on hand) is the effective tax rate. My understanding of the rebuttal to people who point to when individuals were taxed at a marginal rate of 90% was that they were very, very aggressive in finding loopholes so they paid a much lower effective rate. Closing out a lot of these exceptions would allow us to have both a clearer forecast and clearer picture of "who pays what".