In my view, economists should analyze tax policy based on incentives, not moral sentiments, where we have little comparative advantage. The wealthy may not "deserve" their comfort, but strangely confiscating the rewards to private success seems always to produce misery for the rest. The French tax system can surely be designed to produce its prodigious revenue with less economic distortion. Shouldn't that be the quest? Does France really need poorer people and much poorer rich people?
In response to comments.
I believe that those of us who have been financially successful, through a (varying) mix of effort and chance owe a lot to the society in which they have grown and lived. (A view I share, with all due respect, with Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and their