system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Heavily taxing inheritance is only fair and may be the best way to reduce the class divide.

In modern democracies, there are necessary safety nets in place to help those in need - it would be draconian to take this safety net away and literally let people starve out on the street.

However, this safety net is incredibly expensive, and so tax rates have generally been going up in recent decades. I get why many are very hesitant about such changes - especially libertarians see their salary as hard-earned and want as little government interference as possible. I think there's merit to that argument.

But again, the money needs to come from somewhere, and I'm of the opinion that inheritances are the place to look. While income is hard-earned, inheritance isn't - what can little Jimmy change about his parentage and their (lack of) wealth? How is anyone entitled to money they didn't earn?

A few additional arguments:

* Because wealth cannot be amassed, it will either be spent during the earner's lifetime or enter circulation in the form of welfare payments.

* It's not like the kids of rich parents would not benefit more than enough anyway during the former's lifetime (special consideration would be given to orphans and the like)

* This would create a more level playing field, as no one would be able to just live off of revenue from interest. People like Bill Gates - they worked hard for their wealth, and I respect them immensely. But someone who's a billionaire by default? I'm honestly having a hard time to justify why they should be so lucky when others are literally starving.

* Initially, there would be a lot of suspicion about this idea - people tend to be very defensive of money being taken away from them *that they don't even have* (it's the American Dream mentality), but after just a few generations anything *but* wealth redistribution would be seen as completely ludicrous.

In your replies, you can presume that all reasonable steps would be taken to ensure inheritance wouldn't be illegally transferred.

EDIT: Polished this a little bit, I'm on mobile.
gpt
A person's estate has already been taxed. They had to pay taxes on it when they earned it, it seems unfair to tax it again. It also violates the person's wishes. The estate has been amassed to pass on to their kids. Why should the person who earned the money, and already paid taxes on it, not get to decide where it goes?