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Originally Posted by moosenose
What you are saying is that your father believes that the State is entitled to all of the results of his labor, and he has no right to say what happens to the assets that he worked to create or save. You are not talking about the government taking a PORTION of his estate, you are talking about the government taking ALL of it. Let me ask you this: who is going to pay for your father's funeral when he dies? Because if his funeral expenses are coming out of the windfall that his death is going to give the Government, the Government may decide that he doesn't NEED the perpetual care or that fancy headstone, they can throw his body in an oven and save themselves a few thousand dollars.
One of the VERY basic tenets of our system of government is that the government is there to serve the people, NOT that the people are there to serve the government. And with what you were talking about with the "level playing field" of everybody starting out with no assets from their parents, that's EXACTLY what you are advocating....that the wealth of an individual, built up over the lifetime of the individual through the individual's efforts, is ultimately the property of hte Government.
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the government can have every freaking penny of my inheritence. What I work for and make on my own is more important to me. What I'll get won't bring me happiness.
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is MY feeling and opinion...... and it's the truth.
Do I believe the government has the right to every cent someone has when they die?
No.
However, I do feel that to say none of it should be taxed is bullshit and not putting back into the system that allowed you to have whatever you have gotten.
Nowhere did I say my father believes it should all go back to the government. I stated his belief is that when he dies a portion should go back to the system that helped him so that it may help others. That's called taxes.
As for funeral costs that's what life insurance (and IT is not taxed) is for.
I don't understand what the problem with me saying I have no right to what my father made on his own is? I don't he could easily leave me out of his will.
Nowhere did I say we are to serve the government. But by helping my father better his life and therefore he was able to move up into society, it did serve him and it is his obligation to repay it. Inheritence tax is one way of doing it.
What you propose is that the rich should be able to keep every single penny and not put back into the system. If you do not put back into the system the system breaks down.
Now someone who truly had maybe just a small farm or house and wants to make sure their kids have a place to live and something to start on, or their grandchildren, that's cool. But to propose that Bill Gates' kids are entitlked to every single penny he made is bullshit.
Bill Gates got government help when he started and as he moved up, it is his duty to repay the system back FAIRLY so that others may have the chance to move forward like he did.
I don't understand how the GOP can argue government should never help anyone advance, everyone should be working and advance on their own, and yet believe that the wealth of the fathers is entitled to the kids. This is a flaw because it's the same as welfare only it is familial welfare.
Case in point: when I got out of the Navy I hung with a group and we called ourselves the Country Club Boys. One of the guys, mother had died and left him roughly a 2 million dollar trust fund (his father worked for IDS and so it was well invested for him, in CDs, blue chips and annuities). He lived off of it.
Did he ever work? no, he put it up his nose, spent it on golf, alcohol, weed, friends and whatever. He never put it into small businesses for any growth, he never started his own business, was it in any way put back into the system to help someone else? No, he wasted it, no way did it advance society.
I know more people like that who get inheritences than I do people who use the money to advance society.
My feeling is that if the government helped you in any way, you owe them a portion of your wealth.
If you did it all yourself, never got a college loan, never took a small business loan or tax deduction, never took anything at all from the government then perhaps you could argue (and rightfully so) that you owe the government nothing.
I look at it like this, the government is there to help people advance and better themselves, when those people do, they have a moral and legal obligation to repay the help and allow the government to help others advance. Not hoard it all and thumb their nose at those who helped them.
It's like this, as I go through school on government loans, grants and scholarships, and I become successful in my occupation, my drive had a lot to do with it, BUT my drive was enhanced by the government helping me get my start.
It's the same as if I were to recieve help from a friend or family member, by my belief system I would feel the need to repay them for their belief in me. By repaying, they in turn can help another....or I could help another, if they are not there to repay. Government should be seen the same way.