>>It's pretty easy, really.
>>90% tax rates on inherited wealth and much higher tax rates in the very high income brackets.
>>I'm flexible on the deductible amounts, but passing along billions is unacceptable.
>>Those rates were in place after WWII - and the country prospered - but they were gradually eroded by the anti-government rants of the wealthy.
I know a US gazillionaire family with all assets in trust from which giant ca$h crumbs fall for the wastrels. Their inheritance? $0. Perpetual trusts shield from capital gains and death taxes, as well as personal liability in the event of a business faiilure.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
