Whose Property is It?

Somewhere in the debate on inheritance or death taxes lies the core of the difference in the two parties.

The difference is not in which party favors the rich over the common man, which party feels entitled to privilege at taxpayers’ expense or which party  succumbs to individual greed over the common good.

The difference is which party believes your property is yours.

If your property is yours then it is your decision what happens with it when you live and when you die. Whether it is a thousand dollars or a billion dollars why should it become the property of the government when you die? Why should government, only at that point,  decide that your children do not deserve it because they did not earn it?  Why should Barney Frank decide how much your children deserve?

We have all seen children waste a generous inheritance.  We have seen them squander it in poor investments, become slothful and just consume conspicuous luxuries, and seen it psychologically destroy families who cannot manage the impact of sudden wealth in their lives.  There are many wealthy who would roll over in their graves if they could see how their inheritance was spent.  But this does not mean that the government is therefore entitled to the money instead.

We have also seen children manage their inherited wealth prudently and responsibly, continuing family legacies and businesses, creating charitable trusts, investing in new productive enterprises, and deploying their inherited capital in ways that everyone benefits from.  Are we to lose their acumen because someone thinks it is unfair that they have money they did not earn, because they were a member of the “lucky sperm” club?

Families pass down heirlooms and values.  Are we to look at a family as a single generation?  All of us stood on the shoulders of those who came before us, and most of us want to leave our families with improved circumstances, both material and otherwise. What gives any elected official the right to expropriate family wealth because in their eyes family concerns should only last a single generation?

How will the incentive to create legacies, financial and otherwise, be hampered when we are forbidden to consider how we can benefit our children and grandchildren?  Family is a much bigger motivator than the greed that redistributionists are so wrongly focused on.

This chapter of the book on class warfare is the heart of our society.  Is your property yours or open to serve the ‘common good’?  Are you free to determine what is best for your family and grandchildren or is your work to be confiscated to serve someone else’s political self interest?