Fight the Tinsel Aristocracy

Estate Tax Fight Hinges on Money, Morality

Ms. Aviv argues the estate tax moderates the growing gap between rich and poor. The revenues of the tax can help provide more opportunity for those not inheriting great wealth, she says.

"That is a moral argument ... a pretty strong one," she says.

Graetz notes that the American ideal is that people should start out in life from a relatively even position and face equality of opportunity. In that sense, the estate tax is the most progressive of taxes.

Today, the heirs of less than 1 in 100 estates pay any estate tax at all, since $1.5 million per individual and $3 million per couple of any inheritance is currently exempt. The effective rate in 2003 averaged about 19 percent of the estate, and less than that by now.

Most Americans disapprove of a hereditary aristocracy. But Americans are also enormously optimistic, with many believing that they will reach the top 1 percent in income during their lives, surveys show.

Although the sunset provision was a bit preposterous (prompting images of our rivers choked with the bodies of millionaires in December 2011), the idea of permanently repealing the estate tax is nonsensical. This country was founded on many ideals, among them the fact that inherited aristocracy is a bad thing. It was Thomas Jefferson who hoped that the "tinsel-aristocracy will shrink into insignificance" as the Republic grew. Now, it seems, Republicans want to not only grow but perpetuate a tinsel aristocracy. Although I'm not so idealistic that I believe a meritocracy really exists in the U.S., I like to think we should keep striving for one. Reinstating the estate tax will help ensure that American citizens can succeed because of hard work and individual merit, not because they've inherited a massive pile of unearned cash.