A significant proportion of Americans would disagree with you that it's the government's business to "combat inequality". Most people agree with taxes to help the needy and fund infrastructure, but it's a harder sell that the government should punish people just for being too successful.
>Piketty gets into how different rates of capital accumulation create huge rifts between people who own appreciating assets like land and equities and people who don’t who primarily earn wages. The idea behind the wealth tax is to try and narrow the rift.
But he doesn't outline clearly what the problem with this rift is. To quote the criticisms section of the Wiki page on his book (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Ce...):
"One strand of critique faults Piketty for placing inequality at the center of analysis without any reflection on why it matters.
According to Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf, he merely assumes that inequality matters, but never explains why. He only demonstrates that it exists and how it worsens.[36] Or as his colleague Clive Crook put it: "Aside from its other flaws, Capital in the 21st Century invites readers to believe not just that inequality is important, but that nothing else matters. This book wants you to worry about low growth in the coming decades not because that would mean a slower rise in living standards, but because it might ... worsen inequality."[35] "