While I agree that the inheritance tax should be somewhat higher, I think you’re discounting the extent to which parents specifically work to give their kids that head start. They’re also working to give them head starts in many other ways. That’s a feature, not a bug. Perhaps there should be a limit over which the tax rate becomes fairly high, but to try to stamp out any head start is a very bad idea, IMO. The limit should be far higher than your apartment example.