Sorry, having a difficult time getting upset, but I'm trying! Honest!
Why should the feds get 1/2 of am estate when someone dies and has money .. shouldn't this apply to everyone .. whether they have 2 million or $1000 dollars.
Like I said, I'm not going to inherit anything like this, but it seems like it is not a fair deal or just deal at all.
You can't have an economy where money piles up in the hands of a few. Just read up on Latin American history to see all the economic and political consequences. If it means that a few rich kids have to get jobs after daddy dies, well tough sh*t.
So you're going to redistribute the wealth via the govt .. I'm not sure that worked out to well for our communist friends either in Russia or China.
Taking their money because they have a lot of it does not make it right or just. If it is such a good idea .. let's do it for everyone .. from those that have over $500 inheritance. I'm not worried about the rich kids, I'm worried about how a politician can decide that you make too much money and others don't. Where is the sharing or responsibility for all the nation to share - not just take from the rich and give to the 'poor'. You're making this too much about haves and have nots .. I think it is everyone should be treated the same.
I just read a statistic that in 1970 in the top 100 companies the CEO made about 45 times the amount of the lowest paid worker in the company. Now that figure is over 1000 times as much.
THAT is income redistribution, right there. Those with the most wealth and power in this country have been sticking it to the rest of us all along, while crying about "death taxes" and "income redistribution" and "class warfare" every step of the way.
This used to be a country of upward mobility, and to some extent it still is, but if we don't want to end up like some Banana Republic where a dozen families control the nation's economy, there has to be a counterbalancing force to maintain something like a level playing field.
Again .. your poking at how the rich got rich ... is this a just way to do things? This still is a country of upward mobility - anything is possible in America. By taxing the rich you are becoming more and more European.
Go after hem in a criminal manner if they have stolen the money. I am not condoning the disparity of money between the very rich and everyone else - I'm saying that the way that all Americans should shoulder the same responsibilities. All men are created equal.
Of course the rich got richer - they do every year, irregardless of who is in office. Look who they give lobbying money too - you and I votem' in .. we should be able to votem' out as well .. but alas , there are too many sheep out there and will always vote for the same incumbents out there.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!' Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!' That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!' Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier. David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics, University of Georgia
I have no problem with people who get rich, it is part of the American Dream. But the rich have all of the advantages in our society, taxing them to give the poor suckers a bit of a break seems only reasonable to me, besides we can't continue to be the country of our history is only a tiny percentage of Americans can get ahead. It has to based on ability brains and hard work, regardless of social status. Left to their own devices the rich will out compete with those of lesser resources.
American history is all about people who pulled a plow in their respective Old Countries coming here and making a better life. That path has to be kept open for any willing to take it, not just the for the fortunate few.
You have to understand, though, that the wealthy pay almost no taxes EXCEPT for the inheritance tax. We had a 55% inheritance tax for decades and everything worked just fine, it's just a way of getting the wealthy to shoulder their share of the burden, something they haven't been doing for 30 years.
So you're going to take what they have reaped .. yeah .. makes sense to me .. not.
See the Beer story above.
In line with that beer story is another one - Grimms - The Poor Man and the Rich Man
Reaped? 90% of wealth is inherited, not earned.
That money was already taxed and the government don't deserve another dime from it!
You pulled that number out of your ass. I would be willing to bet it is actually less than 20%.
Didn't anyone get the memo? The Europeans and the Chinese are kicking our butts right now. This isn't the 1980s. Since Reagan and his tax cuts that were suppose to make American richer we have being our butts kicked. Econ 101 lesson: An economy has two sides that are in balance: Producton and consumption. Poor and middle class provide most of the consumption and rich people provide capital to increase production. When you take money from the poor and the middle class and give it to the rich like Reagan did this does not increase production since demand falls. And the rich are not going to invest their windfall in increasing production since their is no demand for it. Their windfall goes into speculation which results in boom and bust cycles. Targeted tax breaks for investments in factories in America and small businesses would have been a must better solution.
Big_T
Not that I have any chance of inheriting that kind of money - it seems that Uncle Sam is getting a HUGE amount of money from dead people and from those surviving.