All the World's a Playground

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” - Oscar Wilde

Monday, December 6, 2010

Obama Estate Tax - Bad for Me?

Today Congressional Republicans announced what they most wanted out of first-term Obama - an extension of the Bush tax cuts.  But should it all be viewed as bad from Obama's perspective? Well, he gets essentially what he's been looking for too - finally some traction in Congress, and he gets a time limit on the wealth benefit (yes I'm willing to call it that, and not a death tax).

Wait, don’t I oppose a higher tax rate on the richest?  Shouldn’t I, as one of the lucky few to have something scrapped together here on planet earth, want to keep my own hard earned riches, and my clients to keep theirs? The thing is, when planted most finally in the ground, I’m not really going to care.  Yes, perhaps it’s easy to say this not having children – but my experience shows that, by and large, the spoils of the most fortunate often do not spread to the benefit of future generations in the way many on the right imagine.

And are the dollars best spent in private or public hands?  That’s the essential question.  There is plenty of waste in government these days, always has been.  But I’d have to say, with the devoted descendential hording I observe among the select set I encounter, there is not a strong argument for a better economic stimulus either way.  My guess is it just depends on whom you prefer to see doing the hording.

Yes true, it’s my job to keep things from getting into public coffers as best I can.  People pay me - well I might add - specifically to do this. Yet to a certain extent, the higher the marginal rate, the greater the incentive on my clients to hire me to work some magic.  So I have a vested interest, you could say, in either outcome.

But you could also say, akin to the ancient greek anchisteia- the extended family who inherited the estate of a man who failed to have or adopt a son – I feel a certain kinship with the greater public, both a right and a privilege in passing along what should be passed on, to whom it should. So says a man who cannot pass on to the few - here here to the many.