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Are you saying it’s unfair to inherit something?
by sethd 4y ago
Are you saying it’s unfair to inherit something?
- ehnto 4y agoIt's obviously a nuanced discussion, but it's certainly a personal windfall to inherit land. It's hard to call it unfair, that's just life, but comparing one person who inherited land to someone who did not, it's clear who has the luckiest version of that scenario.
- voisin 4y agoAs long as there is sufficiently high property taxes that owners of land are forced to put it to societally useful purpose in order to pay the tax, I don’t see an issue with land inheritances. I don’t agree with “deemed disposition” tax rules that act as if the land was “sold” to the inheritor, triggering massive capital gains taxes.
- selfmodruntime 4y agoIt‘s unfair to keep large amounts of generational wealth untaxed in the family while hard working people are taxed.
- voisin 4y agoI think the answer is to treat capital gains and dividends the same as ordinary employment income and subject to the same tax rates. Perhaps introduce a sub-1% wealth tax per annum on very large fortunes (100m+) to add friction that the wealthy have to work to counteract.
- bushbaba 4y ago*and to treat loans against capital assets as taxable income. Otherwise we’ll keep seeing the wealthy avoid taxation by loaning against their assets. So long as rates stay relatively low.
- TechBro8615 4y agoMaybe stop taxing any of it...
- someguydave 4y agomaybe the government should tax consumption instead of work or investment?
- c22 4y agoMost governments seem to tax all of these things.
- c22 4y agoTwo hard working people are born in poverty. They each work hard and reap the rewards of their success. They both pay income tax on their gains. One of the people spends their lifetime of accrued wealth on themselves, buying a nice car, a huge house, and luxury goods they don't really need. The other person is concerned about the future of their only child and lives well below their means, when they die they will their estate to their child who immediately stops working and never works again. Is that fair? Now consider a third person who also cares for their child. This person also lives frugally but instead of saving their wealth every year they buy their kid fancy cars and luxury goods. They die penniless but their kid never had to work a day in their life. Is that fair?
- kelseyfrog 4y agoIt confuses work ethic with fairness. It works because we incorrectly associate good work ethic with positive outcomes. This is a particular to our current time and place in society and we should be very cautious when attempting to universalize it. It would be good to reframe it with consequentialism in mind to reveal the unspoken truths of the examples.
- saghm 4y ago> Two hard working people are born in poverty. They each work hard and reap the rewards of their success. They both pay income tax on their gains. One of the people spends their lifetime of accrued wealth on themselves, buying a nice car, a huge house, and luxury goods they don't really need. The other person is concerned about the future of their only child and lives well below their means, when they die they will their estate to their child who immediately stops working and never works again. Is that fair? Ten generations later, the descendants of the first person have all been able to expand their wealth purely due to the wealth that their ancestor had. None of them have had to work hard for generations, but they all vigorously defend their right to give their wealth to their kids without taxes so that they also don't have to work hard. Meanwhile, the descendants of the second person are unable to acquire wealth due to the advantage that people like the first person have in controlling capital, and they all work menial jobs for people like the first person. Is that fair?
- cf141q5325 4y agoParents payed taxes when they acquired their possessions. I dont see why they should have a double tax burden.
- monero-xmr 4y agoMy situation is unique, and when I inherit it’s moral and just - my parents worked so hard, we earned this, it’s unfair to have so much tax. When others inherit, society needs to take their wealth and redistribute it. Their situation is not like mine. These millionaires and billionaires got lucky and their kids don’t deserve to be rich for no reason.
- mypalmike 4y agoHard to tell if this is sarcasm.
- praxulus 4y agoOf course it's unfair. It's the definition of unequal opportunity. That doesn't necessarily mean it's immoral or should be illegal, but how could you argue that it's fair that some people get free money while others don't by the luck of their birth?
- c22 4y agoThe same way it's fair when two people each buy a raffle ticket and one of them wins while the other doesn't?
- wasmitnetzen 4y agoThat's not the same. Everyone can buy a raffle ticket, you can't randomly re-select your parents.
- c22 4y agoI don't get it, everyone can be born. Are you saying that it's the possibility of iteration that makes it fair? So if the raffle enforced one ticket per person it is no longer fair?
- wasmitnetzen 4y agoNo, everyone is born, there is no choice about it. I can choose to partake in a raffle. A forced raffle where everyone has to join is unfair, yes. That's why we have laws, and there is (ideally) no randomness.
- djitz 4y agoHey, I didn’t catch word about the raffle until it ended and that’s not fair
- meibo 4y agoThat's still your fault, you could have read the newspaper in time to look for raffles.