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For or Against Estate Tax Repeal

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Ant:
Republicans are poised to eliminate the estate tax from the American tax system.  The estate tax is an inheritance tax on wealthy individuals.  Currently only the wealthiest 2% of the population pay estate taxes.  Basically when you die, if you leave a substantial amount of money to your inheritors then that wealth is taxed at 50%.  This has been done in the past to discourage the a growing divide between rich and poor. 

The economic thinking is that lack of an estate tax sets up the ground work for the creation of an aristocracy.  In other words, today when you die if your super rich 50% of the money goes back into our economic system unless you either spend it before you die or give it away to a charitable organization.  This creatives a major incentive for the extremely wealthy to either spend or give to charity and prevents the extremely wealthy from hoarding all the wealth.  Without the estate tax individuals that have accumulated millions in wealth can leave there money locked away in bank accounts for generations and watch it continually grow while their family members live off the income with a need or reason to work and contribute to our society. 

On the other hand, some argue its not exactly fair to deprieve the wealthy of the opportunity to give all of their earned money to their children. 

Personally I support the estate tax.. what are your thoughts.

Trauma-san:
I'm of course for no estate tax.


It's a common sense, easy question.  A man works his whole life, and then just because he dies, the government gets half the money he made.  Why? They've already taxed it every way they can... let me break it down for you.


O.K., I'm an 18 year old.  I get a job.  They pay me whatever, and I pay the government nearly 20 percent of my earnings, in taxes.

The money I have left, I buy things with.  I pay taxes on those things that I buy, even though I've already paid almost 20 percent tax on the money I have left (which is what I'm using to buy things). 

If I sell any of the items I buy, I have to report that to the government, and pay taxes on whatever I earned from the sale.

If I buy a car with the money I have left over from the taxes, I have to pay taxes to the government simply because I own the car.  Every year.  It doesn't go away... I have to pay the taxes every year, even though I've already paid the taxes once, on my income, then again when I bought the car, I have to pay them every year just because the car's parked in my driveway.

If I buy a house with the money I have left over from the taxes, I have to pay taxes on it every year, too.  If I DON'T pay the government taxes, just because I, as a free human being, worked and bought something with the money I earned (the piece of money the government let me keep)... If I DON'T pay the government these taxes, they'll take my house from me, and put me on the street cold and hungry.

When I die, guess what? I pay 50% taxes on whatever money I have left, after all the taxes they've hounded me with my whole life, I still have to pay 50% of it back to the government.






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How ANYBODY can be so clouded in their judgement to support that, is beyond me, but look above. 

Twentytwofifty:

--- Quote from: Ant on April 13, 2005, 01:15:46 PM ---In other words, today when you die if your super rich 50% of the money goes back into our economic system unless you either spend it before you die or give it away to a charitable organization.
--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: Ant on April 13, 2005, 01:15:46 PM ---Without the estate tax individuals that have accumulated millions in wealth can leave there money locked away in bank accounts for generations and watch it continually grow while their family members live off the income with a need or reason to work and contribute to our society.
--- End quote ---

You think if the money is just "locked away" in bank accounts it's not in our economic system?  Don't you think that the banks are using that money to provide loans for businesses, mortgages for homes, money for university, etc?  The banks make money off of that and that get taxed, it's still in that big cycle.  Money in a bank account doesn't take it our of the cycle, if you keep it in a shoe box under your bed then yes it does.

Ant:
Trauma:

again your logic is off.  you will never  have to pay an estate tax.  if you read my post only the top 2% of all americans get hit with an estate tax. And what about people that don't work their whole life?  what about paris hilton's grand kids.. 3 generations living off a trust fund.

C2Knucles:

yes i understand this much.  it doesnt leave the economic system, but it gets concentrated.  lets say ur top 10 billionaires never pay an estate tax.  Thats a few hundred billion dollars that stays concentrated in the wealthiest percentage of the population and can continue to grow perpetually.  There is only so much wealth that exists at any point in time in the American economic system if you give 1% of the population the ability to easily hoard more and more wealth you do so at the expense of the rest of America. 

411:
taxes can suck my dick

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