+ the pernicious falsehood that most wealth is aggregated in dynastic hoards. 2/3 of American billionaires are self-made & the vast majority of inheritances bleed out within 2-3 generations. Dynasties rely on gov to support them; they can’t usually fend for themselves in marketshttps://twitter.com/Crit_Rat/status/1091793895556550656 …
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Which poses another thorny question: Should the government have the right to confiscate wealth upon death?
At the risk of alienating everyone I haven’t already, I think this is one of the better ways to fund gov — insofar as it trades off against taxes on income/capital paid by the people who earned it. But it’s still culturally toxic to frame it as a means of sticking it to the rich
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That said, seizing property under any circumstances erodes extant norms that have served the US well. When you primarily tax transactions, people can price that in & come out better off in non-zero-sum trades while society retains the benefits of fairly strong property rights
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There’s a sense in which gifts and inheritances are “transactions,” but I personally do think it’s a bit of a stretch to lump them in with most traditional economic activity
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The estate (death) tax has the same negative effects as the wealth tax. Dad/Mom start business and die. Kids now have to sell business to pay 50% death tax. Business destroyed. The Estate Tax, just like the Wealth Tax, also repels capital. No one wants to come to country w/
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The Estate Tax, just like the Wealth Tax, seizes property, from an entire family at the time of the death of its founder, just when the family suffers most both emotionally and economically.
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1. Utilitarian arguments like "if we don't do this, government won't run well" have no moral force. If the government can't run without stealing money from it's subjects, that's the institution's problem. Not the citizens'
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2. Stealing money from children when their father dies under the guise of "fairness" or "equity" or some other arbitrary fake virtue doesn't make it moral or just.
End of conversation
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