"but, rich people will just hide their money"

again - the purpose of the government is not to play the role of police officer here in confiscating wealth, it's to make the balance sheets work.

if you can hide your money, and the balance sheet works out, then fine.

but, realize that i'm also proposing very large increases in spending, meaning the state will have some incentive to track you down, to balance that sheet.

but, it's the balancing process that matters, not keeping track of and pulling in every single dollar you can find. the government is not a business. it's not accumulating capital, itself.