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I don't think that's true either. Indirectly everyone benefits because in a good system the total produced wealth is growing and the poor majority sees the impr
by alexey-salmin 2y ago
I don't think that's true either. Indirectly everyone benefits because in a good system the total produced wealth is growing and the poor majority sees the improvement of living standards.
In a bit more details, the wealth can be created, preserved, redistributed and destroyed (i.e. failed to be preserved). Obsession with fair redistribution harms the creation and preservation of wealth, in the end there's nothing left to distribute. We saw that happen IRL.
In my view, creation and preservation of wealth is more important to get right. At least you'll have something to redistribute in the first place. And within that framework, inheritance is a good way to preserve wealth because passing it to the state inevitably destroys part of the value due to bad governance. Inheritance is also a very good incentive to create wealth, I personally wouldn't work 12 hours a day if I didn't have kids to set up in a new country where they have nothing.
So while inheritance is only a part of the whole system, I argue that it's not only humane part but a necessary one. Live country-wide experiments seem to confirm this so far.