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A handful of ultra-rich dynastic families are bleeding the country dry and destroying American democracy
Robert Reich
18 Sep 2017 at 09:51 ET
The estate and capital gains taxes were originally designed to prevent the growth of large dynasties in the U.S. and to reduce inequality.
Theyve been failing to do that. The richest 1 tenth of 1 percent of Americans now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.
Many of todays super rich never did a days work in their lives. Six out of the ten wealthiest Americans alive today are heirs to prominent fortunes. The Walmart heirs alone have more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined.
Rich millennials will soon acquire even more of the nations wealth.
America is now on the cusp of the largest inter-generational transfer of wealth in history. As wealthy boomers expire, an estimated $30 trillion will go to their children over the next three decades.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/a-handful-of-ultra-rich-dynastic-families-are-bleeding-the-country-dry-and-destroying-american-democracy/
underpants
(182,829 posts)pansypoo53219
(20,981 posts)TexasBushwhacker
(20,202 posts)We should not be in the business of continuing dynasties. Supposedly we left that behind when the first settlers emigrated from England. Not to mention that these huge estates have accumulated wealth without paying taxes on the growth.
Estates over $500 Million - 60%
Estates over $100 Million - 50%
Estates over $50 Million - 40%
Estates over $20 Million - 30%
If your non-spouse heirs can't get by on $14 Million, they can get a job! Keep in mind, spouses would still inherit tax free. Smart wealthy people usually have life insurance policies in place to pay taxes.
GeoWilliam750
(2,522 posts)But rather there seems to be so many ways to avoid paying any inheritance tax at all, or simply a tiny fraction of what is owed. The greater complaint seems to be that the super-wealthy spend so much money on estate planning.
In 2014, it seems that there was a total of $19.3bn paid in estate taxes, and the percentage as a total of US federal tax revenue has declined. There have also been numerous articles about the IRS having its budget cut, and its audit/enforcement staff substantially trimmed.
Welcome to hereditary aristocracy. It seems that we had a squabble with the British regarding this matter about 240 years ago. Hereditary aristocracy (in control of government) does not typically work well for the societies that have it.