"In early 2012, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial: The Heartland Tax Rebellion, which brought to national attention the movement in many Midwestern states to replace their state income tax. The opinion piece compared nine states with the highest personal income tax with nine states...

Government does lots of redistribution along with expenditures for defense, education, etc. Government imposes income taxes to finance these activities. Income taxation can be done to raise revenue in a simple transparent way. Here's a suggested scheme