Those are quaint opinions you’ve espoused about inheritance taxes, but most people I know that oppose such taxation do so out of innate unfairness - not really because of effects on future generations. Income taxes are paid when money is earned. Layered on to that are employment taxes, social security taxes, and local taxes. The portion of our earnings that goes into buying a home gets taxed again every year (real estate taxes). The portion of our earnings that go into purchases gets taxed again (sales taxes). The portion of our earnings that goes into savings gets taxed again (income taxes on interest and dividends). On top of all that, we pay outrageous excise taxes on gasoline, cigarettes, alcohol, and even air travel. And what about the cost of all corporate taxation, which we all pay in the form of highr prices?

Exactly when do the tax leeches stop? Apparently not even when I die. Can my poor corpse please rest in peace without my money being taxed for a fourth, fifth, or sixth time? This tax is just about as immoral as they come. Oh that’s right, we’re just going to single out successful people to gouge in this way - so I guess it’s okay.

As in your second example about the woman at Goodyear - no one group or person should be treated differently than any other. I guess because someone is rich we can through fairness to them out the window, huh? By the way, I’m not one of them and never going to be one.

Is it just me? Or is Lockergnome becoming more and more political? Definitely leaning toward the left.

Please explain to me why, after I have already paid taxes on my earnings, that the Government can just write themselves into my will for 50%???
Also why women and Afro-Americans benefit least from Social Security, but the majority of them vote democrat, which fight to make any changes to the system? Except of course to tax the benefits
.

Jim, thanks for the comment. BTW, I used to think that a flat tax 1 time [let the government pick, when earned or when spent] was all we should have to pay. I was told by several economics professors [I was not in their classes] why that idea would never work. Same for taxes on land. Once paid for, I thought taxes should end. Unfortunately, this is not the way this world works. I would be for a simple tax of x%, no exemptions, no exceptions, but everyone says that is unfair, as it is a regressive tax. No one can agree on what is fair. That is the problem for everyone it seems.

I will say that the people who the inheritance tax will affect are not going to be ‘ruined’ by it. I also believe until the wealthy are kept [during life] from paying less tax [percentage] than the rest of us, they can cough up a little when they go away.

Scott, the opinions here are not necessarily those of the management. I move around on many topics. If you look, I have written about music, computer hardware, computer software, politics, and a couple of other things. I have opinions about these things, and think others would enjoy the discussion. So far it seems to be true. Those who disagree have an ability to voice why they disagree, and perhaps someone else is enlightened by the discourse. Have a good day, and thanks for the comment.

Pat, if you are expecting 50% tax of your estate, you must be doing REALLY well, and so I admire what you’ve done, and really can’t feel sorry for you. From the assessments I’ve read, people with net worth under 300k are hardly affected. [Remember, this is real assets only, not personal effects, plus anyone who really tries can make sure the government will get very little.]

As I said above, taxation seems unfair to everyone, no matter what is done, but the wealthy feel it less, even though they are paying more.

Whine, whine, whine.

Hey yo! if you have enough money to be required to pay estate tax, you can afford it.

I for one very much enjoy the diversity of topics being discussed supplemental to the standard Lockergnome/Windows Fanatics newsletter. Chris & Company’s picks and reviews cover a wide array of subjects and I figure–like TV channels no one’s forced to watch–anyone’s free NOT to subject themselves to blogs which don’t interest them or which they find offensive.

That said, I’m afraid we’ve entered an age when spin doctors, media pundits, PR firms and advertisers (political and commercial) have become very adept at pulling the wool over our eyes. Despite legislation intended to prevent excessive campaign contributions from a single source, and that requiring “disclosure,” lobbyists, campaign contributors and corporations alike have devised clever end-runs around such requirements. Regardless of the true, underlying intent of a ballot measure (and who’s proposing it) for example, its proponents always have names like “Good Citizens Opposed to the Cruel and Torturous Frying of Live Baby Chicks”–even if it’s an attempt by the poultry industry to expand its reach or secure some less restrictive concession.

To relate this not-so-far-afield subject to something more “computery,” consider Brandon Watts’ article “Honesty Appreciated: When Application Installers Are Open” in today’s Windows Fanatics at http://www.lockergnome.com:80/nexus/windows/2007/06/04/honesty-appreciated-when-application-installers-are-open. In his plea for Truth-in-Application-Installation he’s calling for the same kind of honesty we’d all hope for when asked to make any serious decision.

Regardless of your initial feelings about the war in Iraq, for example, the hindsight afforded us by the realization that there were no WMDs, anthrax, fissionable material being purchased from Niger, mobile biological weapons labs and the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 has caused the vast majority of people in this country to change their minds about the wisdom of having “installed” troops there.

Like the EULA that most people fail to read when installing a new piece of software (which not infrequently delineates what superfluous-ware will be installed alongside it): if we fail to do our homework prior to making serious decisions the consequences may just come back to haunt us.

Have we made a return to a period when justice is only for those who can get a majority to side with them?
Not at all. According the Murphy’s Golden Rule…Whoever has the gold makes the rules. As political scientists have shown over & over…you get justice only when you can pay for it. If the lady in the Goodyear had had more money than Goodyear…the results would have probably been in her favor.

You want a good read on the US legal system…pick up Martin Parenti’s book, “Democracy for the Few”. You will NEVER even think about voting for any type of republican again.

Steve, Don, and Paul - Thanks for the comments.

I thought you americans were all against taxes . . . anyone heard of the Boston Tea Party. Going by the list of taxes quoted by Jim E, sound like were now actually have less of them in the UK. :-)

Having said that we have had inheritance tax for a long time, most have found that a good financial advisor can give you ways around it, such as a married couple divide the estate to their offspring at the death of one of them. More often than not this means that the amount being inherited, 50% of the estate, is below the bottom taxation level.

This is why we are a nation of laws, not a nation of justice. “Justice” is inherently subjective. Sadly, our laws are becoming all too subjective in how they are applied.

Estate taxes penalize people who are fiscally responsible. I am a teacher and my wife is an executive assistant and so we are not wealthy by any means. However, she and I have found a way to start saving since we were in our early 20’s. By the time we retire, we expect to have saved over a million dollars. If we don’t spend it by the time we die, the government should not get to take ANY of the inheritance left to my children (since I already paid taxes on it as income and capital gains). The alternative that most in this country take is to spend every dollar they have (and then some in credit) and thus do not have to worry about estate taxes. That is why politicians can call cuts in estate taxes a tax cut for the wealthy when it can in fact affect anyone who saves.