Re:The Rich Can't Get Richer Forever
by imtringued on Sunday September 01, 2019 @02:58PM
(#20854027)
A 100% inheritance tax is destructive and the government doesn't know what to do with objects that are very valuable for their previous owner and their children but worthless on the general market. How do you liquidate a family business without shutting it down because you're removing the family that is working for it?
The way inheritance should be solved is by not allowing a single person to inherit more than 50% of the total net worth.
What we have now is destructive, and what I'm talking about is science fiction. It would require significant legal and economic changes. Coincidentally, it appears now that the long-term survival of industrialized human society will require significant legal and economic changes. So, that's why I would say such a crazy thing.
With the wealth distribution curve we have today, I don't think your proposed solution goes anywhere near far enough to stop the consolidation of wealth in the hands of a very few who hoard it and use it to buy governments. But maybe your definition of "solved" in this context is not the same as mine.
I don't believe it will ever happen. There's too much inertia and rot in what we have now, and nowhere to go to build something new.