Quote Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla View Post
No, taxing economic activity, what they buy is better. Taxing wealth and estates is worse than taxing incomes (especially death tax) because it interupts inheritence which is a key pillar of social mobility. Contrary to popular belief, most people cannot change classes in a generation, but families can inherit wealth across generations - you get a white collar job as a clerk, your child gets to go to university.

Wealth tax has no practical effect on the Rich, unless they are deeply unfortunate and it destroys the estate, what it really does is prevent the poor from accumulating wealth.
This is completely incorrect. It would be correct if the estate tax applied to all estates, but it does not. Even when 2013 rolls around and the tax returns in full force, it will only apply to estates over $1m. If you stand to inherit over $1m, your family is not poor. The estate tax only impacts people who (1) grew up in highly privileged families and (2) did not work for the money they are about to receive. Even then, they will still inherit staggering sums of money. A don't have much sympathy for someone who's complaining because they only received $5.05m from their $10m inheritance. Those peoples' parents clearly did not instill in them a work ethic.