Re:taxes without representation (Score 1)

[sorry to be an AC, but slashdot is almost as slow as AOL sometimes with sending out information.]

"In addition a lot of people pay estate taxes. It's not just the Scrooge McDucks ultra wealthy. "

This is absolutely correct. But it's also the reason that there are exemptions. As Brin suggested, it would probably not hurt the government all that much if they increased the exemption to ten million dollars. It would exempt most everyone and their family farms, but still bring in taxes on enormous fortunes being passed around.

"Who says my the people I leave my money too won't do better things with it than the government?"

Again, you're right. It's this sort of argument, however, that calls for "The best of all possible worlds." If everyone was a philanthropist, and gave proportionally to their ability to give, we could cut out most taxation and just count on the common good nature of mankind to take care of the unfortunate.

Unfortunate, indeed, that people can not be counted upon to take care of those less fortunate than themselves.

And when you get right down to it, taking money away from people that have that much money (greater than 10 mil) is like taking away a portion of the oxygen around a person that has enough fresh air for a hundred people. Even if you take half of it away, he'll still have more than enough to surivive and plenty to thrive and even to waste.

--dbns