I thought most really wealthy people don't earn "income" in the first place? Don't they generally pay capital gains tax, or no tax by just borrowing money against their assets rather than selling them?
edit: Downvotes instead of rebuttals. Nice.
The division exists to encourage longer term investment, and it's probably a good policy. I didn't downvote you, because I think that general point that the spread between long and short term rates is too regressive at higher income brackets.