I'm leaving a large estate to my kids because they (and any kids they have) need something to fall back on if my investments in governance in their country of birth fail. Education and guidance aren't enough.

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

What if they can't take care of themselves? There are many reasons to provide for your offspring.

For that we should invest in a social safety net, even basic income, so that those who can't succeed don't have to go off and die.

This would be true if everything in life were fair and there were zero biases towards the rich vs the poor.

Look, we all know that's not true. It's good to give kids a leg up so they don't suffer unfairly in this unfair world.

Like it or not, money does solve (or can simplify) a lot of problems in life . Providing a good education to your kids does not have to be mutually exclusive to leaving money behind. Why not do both?

They didn't earn it, and it may adversely affect who they turn into as people.

Why not give it to literally anyone else? Why not give your money to me when you die? I'm sure your gut said, obviously not, why would I do that? That's how I feel about inherited wealth.

If receiving something you didn't "earn" will always have a negative effect on someone, then why would you give it to someone else?

After all, wouldn't receiving that help that they didn't earn just automatically turn them into a bad person?

I guess we should just burn any extra money we have! Can't be letting people having something for free that they didn't earn!

Are you serious? There are plenty of things people do for their kids they wouldn't do for a random stranger on HN.

Sure, I’m speaking just to inheritance though

Leaving an inheritance is one of those things...

I have thought that there would be no need to leave anything of significant monetary value to my kids. Either they are smart and they do not need that. Or they are dumb and they do not deserve that.

And if I could choose, I would highly prefer paying my taxes not from my income when I am alive, but from the estate I leave after I am dead. For some reason that is completely mindboggling to me, this preference seems to be quite rare...

What would prevent you from just spending / donating your whole estate before you passed and then paying zero taxes? Or is that a feature in your system?

Of course there are practical issues in paying all of my taxes from my estate, but I can still hope that I could pay a bit more of my taxes after my death and less while I live.

So I take it you don't carry a life insurance policy?