If one really wanted to decrease inequality in this country, it would make more sense to tax accumulated wealth heavily rather than income. Some significant proportion of the wealthy did nothing productive to generate their wealth and do not themselves have a moral right to it.There is class warfare going on in this country — but it’s not against the established rich. It’s against those who are trying to become wealthy.
You didn't do anything for any of the things your parents gave you. Are you ungrateful enough to say that you are not going to try to pass along as much, and if possible more, to your own children? And if you do decide to use your money to make your children's lives financially easier, do they not have a right to the enjoyment of what you decided to do with your money?The crucial difference between conservatives and leftists is that conservatives conserve memory, and leftists claim the right to "start the world over again." Well, there are people who actually do start the world over again every day - they are called "Alzheimer's Disease Patients." They wake up every morning not knowing where they are or who they are meeting. And having only a vague memory of the fact that they have saved money in the past.I have seen it - and I say, I'll take memory over that, any day of the week. Socialists want to obliterate the credit (ie, money and ownership of things) which the productive have earned. Because the ownership of money/things is just recognition of the accomplishments (even if it's only digging a ditch) which the socialist politician or propagandist (read, journalist) has not done.
Those who produce have a moral right to what they have produced. I’m not in favor of taxing wealth or those who decide to leave money to their heirs.
I’m merely pointing out that heirs have a reduced degree of moral right to wealth than those who produced the wealth. IOW, taxing wealth is less unfair than taxing income. Still unfair, but less so on average.
If my second cousin twice removed who I haven’t even met dies and unexpectedly leaves me $1M, that’s great for me. But it’s very much an unearned windfall, quite similar to winning the lottery. If the legal system is set up so that someone else inherits, I’ve suffered no injury.
OTOH, if I work and struggle to earn $500,000 and the government confiscates $300,000 of it in the name of “fairness,” I’ve suffered a great and undeserved injury.