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My point is that there's no obvious harm implicit in denying people an inheritance. They did nothing to earn it. There's no inherent right to be bequeathed weal
by pcrh 9y ago
My point is that there's no obvious harm implicit in denying people an inheritance. They did nothing to earn it. There's no inherent right to be bequeathed wealth; that this is evident is that it is nigh on impossible to sue one's parents (or their estate) for not willing their wealth to you (in the US; under Napoleonic law, there is a right to inherit).
Many people spend inherited wealth frivolously. Business acumen isn't known to be genetically determined, whereas political influence is certainly affected by wealth and pedigree, see George Bush the first and the second.
- sokoloff 9y agoIn the other direction though, there is inherent right (IMO). I have the right, in my pursuit of happiness, to make allocations of my lawfully earned money to my current needs, to my retirement savings, to my children's clothing and education, and other such pursuits and accounts as I see fit. There is harm to the donor to abolishing inheritance. I don't want to live in a world where "I farm this land, just as my father, his father, and his father for 5 generations has done." is not possible.
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y agoSure but if we're going to live in the land of inheritance then we need to toss the ideas that "anybody can make it" or "I earned this." >I don't want to live in a world where "I farm this land, just as my father, his father, and his father for 5 generations has done." is not possible. Why not? A man works hard to support himself but allowing four generations of free-riders seems like a pretty bad idea. It strikes me as a sort of neo-monarchism. In the past we had royalty blessed by god and passed through blood and now we have the economic elite blessed by capital and passed through blood.
- sokoloff 9y agoI don't know how much time you've spent on family farms, but from what I've seen, I'd not describe them as "free-riders" on the land or on past generations.
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y agoThen they can earn the farm the same way their father or grandfather did. If they can't earn it why should they have it? That's what meritocracy means.