>>>>>
>>>>>It was earned by you and the tax was paid when the money was earned. Why should you be taxed again when you die?
>>>>
>>>>Well, taxing me when I'm dying won't hurt me, will it?
>>>>(Sorry, couldn't resist that)
>>>>Money in circulation is taxed every time it changes hands.
>>>>I pay tax on my income, and then pay sales tax again when I buy something with it.
>>>>The merchant who sold it to me pays income tax on that money and the cycle starts all over... ad infinitum.
>>>>In that scenario, in addition to exchanging the money and supporting the community at large by paying their taxes, the participants - or at least one hopes so - used their talents to add something of value to the community at large.
>>>>
>>>>People receiving inherited wealth have contributed nothing, just as people receiving welfare have added no value.
>>>
>>>What definitions are you using for 'nothing' and 'no value' in the last sentence ?
>>
>>Nothing means the absence of something.
>>No value means the absence of value.
>
>Guess I didn't phrase the question well. What's the 'something' that's absent. What 'value' is absent?
>
>I know a lot of people with inherited wealth (and a lot on welfare) who contribute greatly to their communities - often more than others who fall into neither category. If paying taxes is the only way one supports a community then it's not much of a community.

Good points, Viv.
I meant that they added no value when they got the money- they didn't earn it.