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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
The government has basically zero reason to incentivize passing wealth onto one's heirs. There might be corner cases where a parent dies while a child is a minor and so unable to work, but that's about it. I stand to inherit a decent sum, so I'm not against inheritances. But the government has no reason to create extra incentives for my parents to build up wealth just to pass it to me.

Incentivize saving enough to take care of yourself after retirement, sure, I can see that. But saving more than you'll need in your lifetime, nope.[/quote]
Passing on so the next generation is in a better place has been a tenet of the US economic dream. That shouldn't be curtailed, IMO.[/quote]
Disagree with this. The American Dream has always been about unfettered opportunity to succeed from nothing. There is nothing more American than a "rags-to-riches" story. We are literally one of the only countries in the world and in the history of civilization where those kinds of stories are not legends but something that feels real and attainable. The most disturbing thing about the modern American economy is that these kinds of stories are becoming less common or even possible.

Again, I'm someone who stands to inherit and who has benefited greatly from wealthy parents (who arrived in the US as extremely well-educated immigrants but built their wealth from very little). Mostly leveraging the educations and social status that our well-off parents gave us (rather than money so far), DH and I are also wealthy by any meaningful accounting...though DCUM might call us just a little better than MC. I am hyper-aware of the advantages we provide to our kids on a daily basis. We will probably be well-positioned to leave them a decent amount of wealth, but I don't think it's the best thing for our society to have so much advantage and wealth limited to one family.[/quote]

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