Thread: I am struggling to find the correct words to describe:

A steadily increasing force which approaches infinity towards an unachievable goal.

For example, the speed of light. As you approach the speed of light, your mass increases towards infinity, time slows towards zero and your depth decreases towards zero.

The equation is the sqare root of one minus your speed squared over the speed of light squared.

What do you call the dynamic where a force or difficulty increases as you progress towards an unachievable goal because the force or difficulty approaches infinity?

Could it be "Asymptote"?

Asymptote is a good description of the curve I am thinking of but I am actually trying to write something on economics. I am trying to describe a tax structure that makes the aquisition of wealth harder as it increases approaching 100%. Because it is progressive, you would still earn 100% of the first (let's say) $17,000 and still receive large portions of the money say under a $1 million dollars but each dollar you make beyond that will slightly earn you less money until at some point, when you are earning tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a year, each additional dollar will only earn you a fraction of a cent.

I am not necessarily advocating this type of system but I believe that it has to be on one side of an economic scale of potential taxation theories to discuss with the other side being a strictly flat tax where the total amount of wealth being accumulated is completely irrelevant.

I am having trouble adaquately describing the type of tax progression I am trying to express here. I can draw the curve which looks like one end of a bathtub curve but I am just not able to use the words that I feel have to be out there.

Thank you again for your response and I would still appreciate any further aid on this issue.

Hmm, in that case would diminishing returns be a more appropriate phrase?

Progressive tax is the standard term.