Bidden or unbidden, reality persists

From Taxing Top Incomes in a World of Ideas by Charles I. Jones.  From the Abstract.

This paper considers top income taxation when (i) new ideas drive economic growth, (ii) the reward for successful innovation is a top income, and (iii) innovation cannot be perfectly targeted by a research subsidy—think about the business methods of Walmart, the creation of Uber, or the “idea” of Amazon. These conditions lead to a new force affecting the optimal top tax rate: by slowing the creation of new ideas that drive aggregate GDP, top income taxation reduces everyone’s income, not just income at the top. This force sharply constrains both revenue-maximizing and welfare-maximizing top tax rates.

There are unintended negative consequences to raising income taxes on the highest earners, no matter how appealing it seems to the envious.  

This is back to the age old battle between those who want to grow the pie versus those who want to redistribute the pie.  Nobody knows how to grow the pie while redistributing it so you only have the two choices.  

And the results are always the same.  Those who prioritize redistribution always end up accidentally shrinking the pie, making everyone worse off.  Those who prioritize growth always unintentionally make everyone better off.  

You can choose to ignore the reality but the reality remains.