All that would do is make accountants more money. Wealthy people will find a way to pass that along to their children. If there's a 100% estate tax, you can be

All that would do is make accountants more money. Wealthy people will find a way to pass that along to their children. If there's a 100% estate tax, you can bet that they won't have a penny to their name when they die, since the money will be in a trust in their kids' names or something, or perhaps in a corporation whose CEO position is passed down. You would have to significantly change how everything works to eliminate options for the wealthy. And why would you want to? Most extremely wealthy people seem to be self-made [1][2] (not the best sources, but that's what I found with a quick search). Wealth tends to disappear after 3-5 generations (this article[3] claims 10-15), so that money will likely return to "society" relatively quickly anyway. Solving the "problem" seems likely to discourage the types of activities that lead to massive wealth accumulation, like innovation and investment in innovation, which is a healthy activity for society. Wealth taxes seem a bit like throwing the baby out with the bath water. - [1] https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2871-how-most-millionaires-got-rich.html https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2871-how-most-millionaires... - [2] https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/269593 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/269593 - [3] https://newrepublic.com/article/116462/family-wealth-lasts-ten-fifteen-generations https://newrepublic.com/article/116462/family-wealth-lasts-t...