What they actually mean is "I wish you made me pay more". Because they can't bring themselves to write a check to -give- it away, but -do- feel they should have to pay more. Part of that is the social aspect; why should I, as a rich person, be paying more than other people of similar wealth? But I support all of us paying more.

I think I should be taxed more but I also don't think that me voluntarily paying 1% more tax will change anything. However everyone playing 1% more tax will so fundamentally change everything that it's worth doing.

I don't say "I'd pay more tax if I could" I say "I should pay more tax and so should everyone else earning as much as me"

>I increasingly think an underlying motive of why I study fairly intensely is just to end up better than those who were born better than me. You might want to consider the fact then that social mobility is generally higher in countries with higher tax rates.