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roachboy · 07-10-2005, 10:21 AM

tacqueville was right about estate taxes. in democracy in america, he pointed to them as the single most important mechanism in the america of the 1830s that worked to prevent the formation of an economic aristocracy.

the right seems to prefer the idea of an economic artistocracy and presumably each conservative likes to think him or herself as an aristrocract, to pretend that the class interests of that aristocracy line up with theirs. it is the political version of a society for creative anachronism event in which everyone gets to pretend to be a baron.

tocqueville was fascinated with the american democratic experiment, which he argued you could still see operating in the 1830s. it was of course threatened from a number of sides: by urban capitalism, by religious belief and the inability of americans to separate religion and politics, etc--but it was still operational when he wrote--for him, any of these threats could swamp that experiment from the inside--from the outside, the experiment would be definitively ended by the formation of an economic aristocracy.
and that is what the right is advocating across the flimsy veil of their opposition to inheritance tax.

of course tocqueville's america is long dead. in a sense this fight over inheritance tax is simply a symbolic nail in its coffin. the political implications of abolishing the estate tax never seems to cross the mind of any of the conservatives who argue for it--all you get is a version of their general dislike of taxes, nested within the usual rightwing incoherence about the social and political functions of taxation/redistribution of wealth.

the right seems to prefer a kind of neofeudal set up instead of even the last vestiges of democracy...wealth passes across generations, and it therefore entirely private--so the concentration of wealth becomes moot as a political issue--that is what the political implications of this would look like to me.

i dont know what the petit bourgeois right is thinking carrying water for the hyper-wealthy on this question. except insofar as such portage is just one of the things that serfs do for their masters.

07-10-2005, 10:21 AM	#27 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	tacqueville was right about estate taxes. in democracy in america, he pointed to them as the single most important mechanism in the america of the 1830s that worked to prevent the formation of an economic aristocracy. the right seems to prefer the idea of an economic artistocracy and presumably each conservative likes to think him or herself as an aristrocract, to pretend that the class interests of that aristocracy line up with theirs. it is the political version of a society for creative anachronism event in which everyone gets to pretend to be a baron. tocqueville was fascinated with the american democratic experiment, which he argued you could still see operating in the 1830s. it was of course threatened from a number of sides: by urban capitalism, by religious belief and the inability of americans to separate religion and politics, etc--but it was still operational when he wrote--for him, any of these threats could swamp that experiment from the inside--from the outside, the experiment would be definitively ended by the formation of an economic aristocracy. and that is what the right is advocating across the flimsy veil of their opposition to inheritance tax. of course tocqueville's america is long dead. in a sense this fight over inheritance tax is simply a symbolic nail in its coffin. the political implications of abolishing the estate tax never seems to cross the mind of any of the conservatives who argue for it--all you get is a version of their general dislike of taxes, nested within the usual rightwing incoherence about the social and political functions of taxation/redistribution of wealth. the right seems to prefer a kind of neofeudal set up instead of even the last vestiges of democracy...wealth passes across generations, and it therefore entirely private--so the concentration of wealth becomes moot as a political issue--that is what the political implications of this would look like to me. i dont know what the petit bourgeois right is thinking carrying water for the hyper-wealthy on this question. except insofar as such portage is just one of the things that serfs do for their masters. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 07-10-2005 at 10:24 AM..