On Mon, 21 Jun 1999, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Marta Russell wrote:
>
> >Does anyone remember if this was proposed by the 104th Congress in the
> >Contract on America, or is this is a new one?
>
> This is a long-standing Republican obsession. They never call it an estate
> tax, either - they call it a "death tax." It's also often called a
> voluntary tax, since most sophisticated rich people can evade it. That
> porousness is one reason it's very difficult to get good data on the role
> of inheritance in perpetuating wealth inequality.
>
> Doug
>
I don't understand how they can live with the cognitive dissonance here: on one hand, the government should not "give" people any resources because it undermines their motivation to work; on the other hand, giving people inheritance money is an incentive to acculmulate yet more wealth. Any logically consistent, rugged individualist capitalist would reject the notion of wealth transfer via inheritance. Interesting how the rhetoric of "individual achievement" is selectively applied here.
Miles Jackson cqmv at odin.cc.pdx.edu