[CamB]

If there was flat tax, I think that there would need to be excessive rebates back to the bottom 75% (or whatever) - this could, IMO, replicate a progressive structure. I totally see your point, and I totally agree about the "career bureaucrats" comment too- the wastage in the system is self-fueling...

What I mean about investment is that I believe there are a finite number of good ideas/investments, and if there is more capital available then either:

(a) expected returns go down (ie you pay more to invest in the same ideas/investments), or:
(b) more crap investments get invested in (with crap returns).

Given that ideas etc can be in primary, secondary or service industry (I think that's how it works!), I just can't see how the service industry can be unbounded (in size and scope) - it has to be related to primary and secondary industry, which are related to raw resources.

Hence, I guess I am hypothesizing that there is only so much capital that the world actually needs.

Did I make more sense that time?