[lbo-talk] A New Name for "Estate Tax"?

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Notwithstanding great work done by such groups as Citizens for Tax  
Justice, the Economic Policy Institute, and so forth, it is probably  
impossible to teach Americans that the "estate tax" only taxes people  
who can and will hire multiple lawyers, accountants, and investment  
advisors to do estate planning.  The only asset most Americans have  
at the end of their lives is their home, their "real estate."  When  
they hear the term "estate tax," they probably hear it as a tax on  
their only "real estate," the house they live in, just because both  
terms have the word "estate" in them.

Liberals and leftists complained that conservatives re-christened the  
estate tax: the "death tax."  Criticism is probably misplaced.   
Though the conservative effort to rename it was said to be based on  
the results of a 1995 Luntz poll that showed that "death tax" poll- 
tested better for conservative purposes than "estate tax" (<http:// 
www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48025-2005Apr12? 
language=printer>), my hypothesis is that "estate tax" sounds no  
better than "death tax" to average American ears.

Liberals and leftists need a new name that clarifies who pays this  
tax: e.g., the top 1 percent tax. the hyper-rich tax, the billionaire  
tax, or some such name.

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>