People should work for what they have

[Jhhnn]

The thing is, I can, and do believe, in both ways. On one hand one should not count on inheritance, and on the other, make sure they provide for themselves. In many cases, with the exception of uber wealth which is rare, alot of wealth is derived from family type businesses/corporations. And many times, the children work in these companies. So no, I dont see a problem with it.

As a side point to this, maybe you can explain why if someone amasses say, 10 or 20 million in assets, why they owe the federal government? They played by the rules of this country, they should do what they see fit with it. Period. No one loses anything if someone passes wealth to another.

And your analogy of finite wealth in regards to the old frontier days is irrelevant. Why? Because nowadays, most wealth is electronic/virtual. In fact, if you get direct deposit for your job, your measley net worth is virtual as well. These things didnt exist back then. So irrelevant.

I don't see a problem with inherited wealth at the level of a family business, etc, either. If the ceiling where estate taxes begin were raised considerably, I'd think it to be a reasonable compromise.

OTOH, the current concentration of income occurring in this country isn't good for the middle class, at all, and is a symptom of greater and greater concentration of ownership of money-making assets. Estate taxes are one of the mechanisms that limit that, and are simple economic self defense for the middle class.

As for what a person does with their own earned money, I have no argument, and estate taxes affect that not at all, because death ends any benefit the deceased can personally gain from it. What happens to their wealth after their death affects them not in the slightest, regardless of what one's personal beliefs might be wrt an afterlife.

Your argument wrt virtual assets is extremely desperate and disingenuous. What you mention are merely changes in accounting practices. Real estate, businesses, land, timber, minerals, intellectual property and etc are still quite real, no matter how we account for their ownership. Even the most virtualized businesses, such as selling web advertising, are just technological improvements on more ancient methods, be it newspapers or barkers in front of stalls in medieval markets. It's still the advertising business.

Technological innovations that vastly increase the potential for wealth aren't all that ordinary and still require physicality at some level or another, even the internet.

What I was talking about is the way we think about wealth and how it's obtained. As Americans, we think there's always more there for the taking, just like in the frontier days. When we think wealth is infinite, distribution doesn't matter. When we realize that's not the case, we necessarily need to change that view if we want to have a healthy society with broad opportunity for everybody.