Ed Kilgore says ...

8 Words of Wisdom for Week Ending 4/17/2009 #3

It's no secret that arguments for economic inequality depend on two different kinds of rationales. One is simply that of efficiency: permitting a significant amount of wealth accumulation provides capital for investment and growth, while also creating incentives for hard work and innovation. But the other, which is powerful in our essentially moralistic land, is moral: those who create wealth and improve economic productivity deserve, via their hard work, talent, and willingness to bear risks, deserve a higher standard of living than their sluggish, mediocre, and risk-averse fellow-citizens.

A variation on this moral theme is that a nation where your standard of living (not to mention those of your children) is largely determined by the rewards and punishments of rigorous competition is a stronger and more virtuous country--indeed, an exceptional country that has earned certain hegemonic privileges by its virtue and prosperity.

But in determining national economic policies, the "earned privilege" rationale for inequality begins to break down when inherited privilege comes into play. And that's why it's more than passing strange that the estate tax--or as Republicans like to call it, the "death tax"--has such weak support in Washington even among politicians who profess no particular objection to progressive income taxes ...

I have been continuously surprised at the opposition to the Inheritance Tax among so many Americans. Obviously, a lot of that is based on the misinformation put out by conservatives and their "useful idiots" in the Republican Party. (No one can find a single instance of a family farm being lost as a result of the inheritance tax.)

The answer to why conservatives support the inheritance tax seems rather simple to me: they are hypocrites. The notion that they support rewarding risk is just bunk. They reward the accumulation of wealth ... and that is all. They seek to make it easier to keep wealth, and have no interest in helping others join the ranks of the wealthy. At no point are modern conservatives about anything else.

Source - The Democratic Strategist