Why People Care About the Estate Tax
Democrats spend a great deal of time fulminating about a tax that raises roughly no revenue for the Treasury.
I understand why Republicans are so gung ho to get rid of the estate tax: Simply put, very rich people will donate a lot of money to campaigns that suggest their children ought to be able to inherit their wealth tax-free.
.. Society does not have an interest in your desire to ensure that your children are better off than other children.
I understand that you have a great interest in this matter. I applaud the tireless work you put in to this end. But society’s job is all children, not specific children who are lucky enough to have hit the genetic lottery. And its aim should be for a society of equal opportunity to succeed and get rich. So once you’ve died, and no longer have property rights society needs to protect, there’s no particular moral precept that points toward helping your children inherit. On a moral level, I’d be perfectly comfortable with a 100 percent tax on anything you haven’t passed on before your death.
.. People will work hard to pass on their wealth to their children, and that work has spillover benefits for the rest of us. A lot of rich folks are doing unglamorous things like running fast-food-franchise operations, building homes, and manufacturing plumbing supplies. As they near their golden years, those folks might well be tempted to slack off if they knew that any further work would benefit strangers instead of their children.