Does raising tax rates on capital gains raise revenue?

[Redalgo]

I am not really concerned about whether a hike on taxation of capital gains increases revenue so much as whether it helps reduce socioeconomic inequality or - to frame it in a more culturally appropriate fashion - increase relative equality of opportunity. Having little knowledge of macro-economics, however, I am interested in striking a balance between the before mentioned goal, drawing insights from others on how to avoid inflicting unduly negative impacts on markets, and generating sufficient revenue for the state to fulfill the roles I envision for it. The trouble for me is settling on which school of thought to confide in since I appear to make different assumptions about human behavior than a lot of economists.

I usually do not wander into these kinds of threads, but is there any chance one of you could break this down into layman's terms a bit so that I might glean a bit of new wisdom from your perspectives? I have a lot of big picture goals in mind but less so the means for reaching them.