Reply #30: The best reason to tax estates

[camero]

http://www.s-t.com/daily/09-00/09-20-00/a15op068.htm

Overlooked in this controversy is the best reason the estate tax should be retained, and it is cultural: Estate taxes keep the United States from turning into Europe.

For centuries, European culture and politics have been plagued by class hostilities centered on inherited wealth. Almost everyone in the traditional European aristocratic cohort received his or her financial position in life through inheritance. (Most Europeans nations enacted estate taxes in the postwar era, but they are easily evaded.) Europe's "idle rich" performed no productive labors and created no wealth. People who had to work resented that fiercely. The results for Europe have been sharp class hostility and sluggish economies.

Already, the arc of U.S. society is toward the creation of European-style wealth concentration, and that is disturbing enough. In 1976, the richest 1 percent of society held 21.8 percent of wealth. By 1983, it held 33.8 percent; today, it holds 38.5 percent of all wealth and the figure continues to escalate. In the coming two decades, many in the top 1 percent will die, and the deck will be reshuffled as the estate tax redistributes some of this accumulation. If the estate tax is repealed, the rate of wealth concentration will continue to accelerate.

I guess this is what you want us to become.