“I am impressed that the strong majority of the world’s richest individuals (about 30 out of the 39 richest Americans) made their money rather than inherited it. The wealthiest individuals are mainly self-made because inherited wealth gets dissipated over a couple of generations through bad investments, or is given to various charities, or gets broken up and divided among many grandchildren, cousins, and divorced members. For this reason, no descendants of John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, or other titans of the beginning of the century are among the very wealthiest”. — Gary Becker, Nobel Laureate in economics on The Proliferation of Billionaires
An argument in favor of an estate tax.
You aren’t doing the heirs any favors by letting them capitalize on their parents good business decisions and hard work without ever having to pay taxes on them.
[quote comment=”169809″]An argument in favor of an estate tax.
You aren’t doing the heirs any favors by letting them capitalize on their parents good business decisions and hard work without ever having to pay taxes on them.[/quote]
If we view their parents as having worked for and earned their fortunes, isn’t it then their right to spoil their children?