| Sqrl said: This past year the guy who cought the big Bonds homerun had to sell the ball because the IRS knocked on his door the next morning saying they wanted their share. The fact is that there are folks who have estates worth a few million and the money is all tied up in assets that they own. It is not an uncommon occurence for people to sell portions of an estate to pay the taxes on the estate. The fact that anyone would be forced to sell things given to them by their recently deceased relative is quite frankly mortifying. |
Taxes are paid on things given as gifts over a certain amount. Are you in favor of getting rid of the gift tax? Anyways, rich people, the really rich ones, have trusts. There are ways around paying estate taxes (estate planning) so in my mind it comes down to poor planning by the person making the gift of some property to another person upon their death. I don't know why you find it mortifying that things are sold. I understand the sentimentality but painting it like that is a little overboard. If you look hard at what people have to sell to pay taxes it almost always involves real estate that is worth so much that the person inheriting it could not afford to live there and pay the property taxes. If it is the specifics that irk you so much then we could delve into details.
On the question of a plutocracy vs. meritocracy: I have looked at the history and plutocracies only come about when the amount of capital becomes extremely skewed distribution wise. Plutocracies don't exist when the distribution of capital is more even. Plutocracies aren't meritocratic by definition. I prefer meritocracies so I am for measures that prevent the rise of plutocracies. I view campaign finance reform as only a treatment for the symptom and not a cure (but I'm still for campaign finance, go McCain).
