consumption taxes are regressive.
8% tax on jeff bezos' 500M yacht set is a drop in the bucket for him.
on the other hand, 8% tax for purchases made for someone who lives paycheck to paycheck means they're going to have to start choosing about what to pay - fix that car to get to work and pay the bills, pay rent on time, have enough food in the fridge?
edit: 8% was just a random number
VAT is how most of the world raises a significant portion of tax income (practically all of Europe). I like VAT as it tends to be collected even from criminals, and wealthy people, without reportable income.
Since nearly the entire rest of the world is using VAT, it's regressive nature is obviously an easily solvable issue. Typically there are small list basic necessity exemptions (food and rent...), plus lower income people get direct rebates. The most progressive countries in the world, with much better wealth distribution are making extensive use of this tax.
In Europe the typical VAT rate is around 20%, so Billionaires like Bezos would be paying 20% of that Yacht, and everything else in is lavish life. While he can afford it, it's a significant revenue generator, and would likely be more than the income tax he pays.
That 20% helps Europe fund it's much more progressive social systems. It's an order of magnitude more than what a wealth tax would generate assuming the Billionaires would stick around to keep paying your wealth tax.
Fans of a Wealth tax have to realize it's VERY easy for someone like Bezos to evade, since he can just move to a different country. Billionaires have the resources to live anywhere in the world they want, and since wealth taxes are extremely rare, there is little chance he would have to concern himself with such a tax.